Visualizing Empire

Find and photograph several cultural artifacts—paintings, monuments, posters, perhaps even trophies brought back from the colonies—that express in some way the “Rhetoric of Empire”: perhaps a claim justifying mastery over other peoples, perhaps an effort to present native peoples on par with exotic animals. Ideally, most of your various cultural artifacts should form a coherent collection, a “Body of Evidence” as per our practice last semester. This will help organize the upcoming essay: you can only reference 5 distinct pieces of evidence in a 3-4 pp essay by identifying a key pattern in that body of evidence: Light and Darkness, Above and Below, Reason and Emotion. But at the same time, you should focus on artifacts which engage your interest. If you fall in love with a painting but you aren’t sure why it “feels right” for thinking about your passage from Conrad, take the time to figure out whether there really is a meaningful connection. Perhaps Colbert was right to insist on the importance of gut intuition, after all.

In casting about for cultural artifacts, consider:

• The Albert Memorial in Hyde Park just north of the Crofton.
• The many paintings, sculptures and decorative objects on display at the V&A museum (also just a short walk from your dorm).
• Propaganda posters and artifacts from the colonial era on display at the National Army Museum.

All sources should date to the Victorian (1837-1901) or Edwardian era (1901-1914).

For class, post photos of the two most interesting cultural artifacts you found, together with (1) a label identifying the object (date and place of origin) and a brief commentary explaining why you think it’s interesting.

If someone else has already posted an artifact you want to post, add your commentary as a “reply” to their post, and don’t bother posting your photograph unless it’s substantially different from theirs.

[spoiler title=’Essay Length’]Grading Rubric [/spoiler] [spoiler title=’Pizzaro & the Inca’][/spoiler]

Imperial Rhetoric

As a lead-in to the next essay, two fairly brief HW assignments (minimal writing, anyway).

Kipling

Re-read “The White Man’s Burden.” What 3-6 word phrase best captures Kipling’s conception of empire? Put that quotation in a comment, below. (But reload this page and read what others have already posted, so as to avoid duplication.)

Conrad

Heart of Darkness is considerably longer and more complex than Kipling’s poem. Efforts to isolate the rhetoric of Empire in Conrad’s novel face the challenge that different characters in the book have differing concepts of both the goals and methods that the imperial project should adopt.

For HW, I’d like you to quote a passage where a character (Marlowe? Kurtz? the Manager of the Middle Station?), explicitly or implicitly expresses a notion as to why European men should go to Africa. In a comment below, post the passage, along with the character associated with that view. Once again, reload the page before posting, so as to avoid duplication.

[spoiler title=’In Class: Virgil, Aeneid’] Virgil, Aeneid, Bk 6. 1129-1137 (in the Mandelbaum translation):

For other peoples will, I do not doubt,
still cast their bronze to breath with softer features,
or draw out of the marble living lines,
plead causes better, trace the ways of heaven
with wands and tell the rising constellations;
but yours will be the rulership of nations,
remember, Roman these will be your arts:
to teach the ways of peace to those you conquer,
to spare defeated peoples, tame the proud.

[/spoiler] [spoiler title=’In Class: Bath Abbey’] [/spoiler]

Day Two: We Juggle Two Assignments

Reading Sarah Tarlow, “Landscapes of Memory: The Nineteenth Century Garden Cemetery.” As you read, look for connections between Tarlow’s account and what you’ve been learning in Humanities about the Victorian interest in death and mourning. In reply to my comment, below, post a line from Tarlow and a corresponding line from a Victorian poet or from Guendel’s lecture.

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Writing Looking ahead to the first essay assignment, visit the Imperial War Museum and/or the National Army museum and find a poster (or cultural artifact) from WWI on display at the Imperial War Museum or the National Army Museum that you’d like to write about in the coming essay. Take LOTS of photos, as points of reference, not just of your poster, but of other objects on display and of explanatory placards.

1. Make a list of 15 important visual details.
2. Consider your wording: is the girl looking curiously or accusingly at her father? Aim for descriptive phrasing that provokes insights but remains true to what’s actually there.
3. Identify one or two especially vital details, those which point most closely to larger insights, and under which other details can be organized as supporting evidence.

These one or two vital details, together with their subsidiary details, can form the basis for one or two ¶s. Write up your description and submit below, in reply to my second comment.

Remember to skip an extra line between ¶s, so the website gives you a proper indent at the start of each ¶.

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Email

Please email me your best photo of your poster.

[spoiler title=’In Class’]

• Chicago Style for upcoming Highgate Cemetery assignment
• MLA Style for upcoming WWI Poster assignment
• Elizabeth Barrett Browning excerpt from Gray’s article (poempoem+map)

[/spoiler]

Day One: We Dive Right In

For class: read “A Satire of Circumstance,” the first chapter from Paul Fussell’s The Great War and Modern Memory.

Discussion:

1. What do you know about WWI already?
2. clipping from p3, “Thomas Hardy, Clairvoyant,” to extract his dominant idea.
3. Irony plain and simple: Colbert Report, “Truthiness.”
4. clipping from pp7-8, “War as Ironic Action.”
5. contrast to Hamlet 4.4, Fortinbras’ war.
6. clipping from p18, “Never Such Innocence Again.”
7. clipping from p21, “The certainties were intact.”
8. Recruitment Poster, “Daddy, What Did YOU Do In the Great War?”
9. Ironic re-working of the poster from early 2010s, “I Buggered Off Abroad.”
10. clipping from p26, the sporting spirit as national identity.

For next class: go to the Imperial War Museum or the National Army Museum. Find a poster you want to write about for the upcoming essay. For details on what to do during your museum visit, look at the HW for class 1.2.

Imperial War Museum

National Army Museum