Travelling Cultures: Movement, Conflict and Performance
Many of the foundational myths informing “Western Civilization” are narrations of the often violent conflicts performed in a situation where cultures on the move meet. The Rape of the Sabine Women is just one of such tales that illustrate how Rome and its history offer a privileged perspective on the pivotal role of violence in establishing civilization, as well as on the strong cultural memory they produce through the works of art inspired by these myths. In the current global political situation, it is worth revisiting those myths to explore, with the tools of cultural theory, how the movement of cultures, which was once the standard of human cohabitation, has become seen as problematic in the present. In an anachronistic (“pre-posterous”) perspective, participants will bring analytical concepts with relevance for the present in its connection to the past, to bear on their own research projects. Close attention to cultural objects in view of the themes hinted at by the title, with the help of theoretical concepts will be the goal of the seminar.
Course information
The Masterclass is organised by and hosted at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR), in conjunction with the Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis (ASCA), the Huizinga Institute. Research Institute and Graduate School for Cultural History, and the Netherlands Research School for Literary Studies (OSL). The Masterclass comprises a series of excursions to locations in and close to Rome that have relevance to the seminar’s topic.
Staff: KNIR-fellow prof.dr. Mieke Bal (University of Amsterdam), in conjunction with prof.dr. Harald Hendrix (KNIR).
Guest lecturers: prof.dr. Ernst van Alphen (Leiden University), Kaspar Thormod MA (EUI Florence), various KNIR staff members.
Credits: 6 ects, assigned upon completion of the final essay.
Languages used in the Masterclass: English.
Assessment: preparation of a position paper prior to the seminar in Rome, on-site oral presentations, active contribution to plenary discussions, and a final essay to be submitted after the stay in Rome.
