Arts and Cultures towards the Crossroads

(4 Credits)

This course examines the arts produced within diverse cultural traditions across the globe from the rise of Islam at the beginning of the 7th century to the global empire building of the late17th/early 18th century. The course explores the distinctive conventions and traditions of different media, and the development of cultural traditions from their ancient foundations to the early modern period through successive influences and assimilations, both local and external. Diverse cultural traditions are also considered in relation to one another: by direct comparison of works even in the absence of historical cultural contact; by consideration of mutual interactions, exchanges and contestations; by the assertion of cultural dominance; and by resistance to such assertions.