History 49SC - Advanced Seminar: Incredible India?

Institution:

Washington University in St Louis

Subject:

Description:

Today, India's Department of Tourism works to attract visitors from far and wide with the slogan, "Incredible India!"-a publicity campaign that extols the country's exceptionalism. Yet, images of India as unique and exotic, exceptional yet unchanging, are anything but new. They have been absolutely foundational to everything from British explorer Richard Burton's translation of the Kama Sutra, to the hit TV series Jewel in the Crown, the global explosion of Bollywood, the scholarly study of the "subaltern," and the proliferation of yoga studios in North America and Europe. How, and why, did India become "incredible"? Reaching to intellectual and social history and to cultural studies methods, this course explores the mechanisms for the production of popular perceptions about India. Where do these perceptions originate and how are they produced? What are the intellectual traditions, the institutional sites, and the visual/narrative forms that support what some might describe as a trans-national public relations campaign? In answering these questions, students use a diverse range of primary and secondary sources.

Credits:

4.00

Credit Hours:

Prerequisites:

Corequisites:

Exclusions:

Level:

Instructional Type:

Lecture

Notes:

Additional Information:

Historical Version(s):

Institution Website:

www.wustl.edu

Phone Number:

(314) 935-5000

Regional Accreditation:

North Central Association of Colleges and Schools

Calendar System:

Semester

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