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WiSe 17/18: The Art of Diplomacy. Material Culture and the aesthetics of gift exchange in Early Modern Europe and Asia

Joachim Rees / Seo Yoonjung

Comments

This seminar explores in a comparative perspective the practice of gift exchange in early modern Europe and East Asia as a device of cross-cultural diplomacy as well as a mirror of the tastes, values, economics and productive skills of a given society. Focusing on the role played by art and material culture, the seminar examines the ways in which material goods and gifts shaped political exchanges, and how such exchanges influenced the circulation and perception of art and material culture in early modern world. Using methodologies from anthropology, sociology, and cultural studies we will explore various exchange settings and the agency of artistic products in cross-cultural relation-building by addressing questions such as: what made artifacts worthy of being presented in the early modern period, who were involved in the process of production, selection, transporting and circulation of gifts, how did these specific objects served a certain diplomatic and political purpose, and how did the meaning and function of these gifts changed throughout time. The seminar is open to advanced students with a strong interest in ‘border-crossing’ topics, supported by an additional motivation to improve language skills as the seminar will be conducted in English and German. close

Suggested reading

Introductory literature: Appadurai, Arjun, The social life of things commodities in cultural perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.- Bleichmar, Daniela, and Meredith Martin, Objects in motion in the early modern world. Chichester: John Wiley, 2016. – Broilo, Federica A. “Making sense of diplomatic gift exchange between East and West (1644-1820),” in: Rui Oliveira Lopes (ed.), Face to Face. The transcendence of the arts in China and beyond - Historical perspectives, Lisbon: Artistic Studies Research Centre, Faculty of Fine Arts University of Lisbon, 2014, pp. 240-256. - Häberlein, Mark, and Christof Jeggle, Materielle Grundlagen der Diplomatie: Schenken, Sammeln und Verhandeln in Spätmittelalter und Früher Neuzeit, Konstanz: University Press Konstanz 2013. - Keblusek, Marika, and Vera Noldus Badeloch, Double agents: cultural and political brokerage in early modern Europe, Leiden: Brill, 2011. - Um, Nancy, and Leah R. Clark (eds.), The art of embassy: situating objects and images in the early modern diplomatic encounter, in: Journal of early modern history, Volume 20 (2016), no. 1, pp. 3-18. close