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WiSe 21/22: A Bridge Between East and West: Representing the Middle East in Berlin

Viktor Ullmann

Comments

Knowledge about the Middle East is increasingly produced through representations of cultural products from the region - in film screenings, in art exhibitions, or at book launches. Although at first glance, learning at the hand of “authentic“ artifacts might seem particularly unfiltered and immediate, we rarely reflect critically on the larger framework of the events that deliver it. How exactly is this Western interest in the Middle East configured? How is it tied to the particular logic of the urban contexts in which these events take place? At the example of Berlin, this seminar will take an extended look at different exhibitions of the Middle Eastern Other in the city throughout the last century, from the replications of Cairene street life at the 1896 Berlin trade exhibition to the momentous visit of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1967 to the recent success of Iranian cinema at the Berlin International Film Festival. Taking cue from Cultural Studies and their understanding of representation as a practice, these phenomena will constantly be tied back to the particular urban narratives of Berlin, from the urge to be a global metropolis to the topos of the divided city as a beacon of liberalism to the branding of reunified Berlin as a bridge between East and West. Using the case of Berlin as an open projection space is an opportunity to reflect on the different disciplines that are often necessary to make the entanglements of cultural representation visible, from urban sociology and history to anthropology, from film studies and philology to art history. It is also an invitation to participants to enrich the seminar with their own diverse backgrounds, both in terms of disciplines and their own particular urban experiences. close

16 Class schedule

Regular appointments

Thu, 16:00 - 18:00 16 Class schedule

Thu, 2021-10-21 16:00 - 18:00

Lecturers:
Viktor Ullmann