Syllabus Description (from Canvas):
These are two texts: the one on the left dates from the late sixteenth century, the one on the right from the early twentieth. What do they say? (And can texts speak?)
IMPERIAL TEXT IN ISLAMIC TEXTURE
Literature and Arts in the Ottoman Empire
Course Description
This course examines Ottoman court literature and visual culture as elite practices embedded in imperial governance. Focusing on poetry, historiography, calligraphy, manuscripts, architecture, and visual representation, we explore how Ottoman authors and artists used Islamic idioms to produce distinction rather than universality.
The course emphasizes close reading, comparative thinking, and material analysis. Students will engage with translated Ottoman texts while situating them within broader conversations about empire, world literature, and cultural hierarchy—without assuming that global circulation necessarily implies cultural equality.
Almost all reading material will be provided online.
Learning Objectives
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Analyze Ottoman literary and visual texts as elite cultural practices
- Identify how form, language, and materiality shape access and exclusion
- Situate Ottoman texts within transregional literary networks without reducing their specificity
- Practice comparative analysis grounded in close reading
- Articulate how imperial aesthetics evolve over time
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Course Structure
- Weekly thematic units combining text + image
- One gazel (or excerpt) per week for sustained poetic literacy
- Emphasis on discussion rather than coverage
- Gradual movement from early imperial formation to late imperial self-reflection
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Major Assignments
- Discussion Board
- Reading Assignments
- In-Class Exercises
- Two Response Papers (worked on in class)
- Final Project (digital curation or analytical essay)
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Catalog Description:
Historical, conceptual, theoretical, and critical perspectives on world texts from antiquity to the digital age. Manuscript circulation of texts in the Middle Ages and modern times; global histories of the rise and spread of print technologies; preservation, access, reuse, and recycling of text. Impacts of digitization and textual data on reading and on repositories and institutions, such as libraries.