The State and the Art: Photography and Nation Building in Burma
- Course Code:
- 15PHIH015
- Status:
- Course Not Running 2012/2013
- Unit value:
- 0.5
- Year of study:
- Year 1 or Year 2
- Taught in:
- Term 1
This course will explore the ways in which photographic image making developed in Burma during the colonial period, and its contemporary trajectories within independent Burma. It will examine the ways in which images have been used both to support state structures of authority as well as to subvert and contest them. It will also examine the relationships between administrative practice and visual media more generally, for example the transition to different kinds of photographic economies at different times in the country’s history.
Students will gain a good understanding of the main theoretical and methodological issues, such as relations between photography and power, the concept of the visual economy and the social life of images.
The course will be divided into two parts, with the division occurring at reading week. The first part of the course will concentrate on the development of photographic practice during the period of colonial rule. It will begin with an overview of the theoretical, technical and methodological issues mentioned above and will explore through detailed examination of the works of a number of photographers the different visual economies that emerged during the colonial period and their intersection with colonial authority. In this, the course will take advantage of its close proximity to the British Library, and the collaborative relationship that exists with the Photograph Department (through research projects currently and formerly being run by the course convenor) to look at archives of administrators and others in both majority Burman and non-Burman areas. The second part of the course will consider the connectivities that were created between photographic networks that were established during the colonial period with those that developed after. In particular during this term the course will concentrate on the photographic output of Burmese (Burman and non-Burman) photographers. This will take into consideration the development of professional photographic practice, photo-journalism and studio photography, the work of photographers in government service such as those producing id-cards. It will then consider the photographic practice of conflict documentation conducted by armed ethnic groups in Burma and those in opposition to the state and their use of photographic media will be compared. This will draw upon materials developed through the convenors current ESRC funded project on ‘Photography and Ideologies of Ethnicity and Conflict in Burma’ and the materials will, therefore, be unique to the course.
Objectives and learning outcomes of the course
At the end of the course, a student should be able to demonstrate…
- understanding of the ways in which photography is related to different structures of power and authority
- critical understanding of the main historical and visual and cultural anthropological literature on these issues to develop inter-disciplinary analytical apparatus
- understanding of the technical development of photographic image making and its relationship with other forms of media in Burma and more broadly
- be able to handle (physically, theoretically and methodologically) photographic images in appropriate ways to develop historical research questions
Method of assessment
The written exam will count for 40%. 2 pieces of coursework will count for 25% towards the final mark.
