Iğsız
FRSEM-UA 593.001
Tisch Hall, LC6
W 2:00-4:30pm
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Office: Rm.512, King Juan Carlos Center
Email: asli.igsiz@nyu.edu
Orientalism, Cultural Representation and the Middle East
Matthew Jarvis. Drawing. The Gateway of Elbab, Safi, Morocco. (19th Century)
ARTStor
Scholars have argued that since the “fall” of Byzantine Constantinople to the Ottomans in the
fifteenth century, Western European intellectuals have framed cultural difference in terms of the
“East” and the “West”: Renaissance humanists, for example, resorted to the ancient and medieval
texts to create a religiously and culturally defined “other”—the “Ottoman Turks.” Their writings
then spread around Europe and generated problematic conceptualizations of what the West ought to
be, as different from the East. This is by no means an isolated case; political matters have always
informed different forms cultural representation. In the nineteenth century, for example, we begin
encountering systematic categorizations of peoples imbued with discourses of civilizations. Critic
Edward Said identifies such problematic representations of the so-called East as “Orientalism” and
offers a productive category to analyze how such representations have informed power relations and
policies.
This course will examine a wide variety of cultural representations pertaining to the modern Middle
East that have contributed to the "East/West" divide conceptualized as Orientalism. In that light, we
will explore politics of cultural representation in different fields such as cinema, literature, visual
culture, political economy and humanitarianism. Some questions we will address include: What are
the politics of cultural representation over (at least) the last two centuries that have marked modern
day politics? How do such representations lend themselves to problematic interpretations of the
East/West in general, and the Middle East in particular? What are the racial, historical, and cultural
implications of these representations and the policies that they inform?
The reading responses should be posted on the blog by 10pm, the day before our class.
The final paper is due on Friday May 13th, by 10pm via email.
In order to provide flexibility in our class, the electronically provided readings are subject to change. In the case
of a change, you will be notified both in class and on the blog.
Iğsız
FRSEM-UA 593.001
Tisch Hall, LC6
W 2:00-4:30pm
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Office: Rm.512, King Juan Carlos Center
Email: asli.igsiz@nyu.edu
Course requirements consist of regular reading responses, a presentation, and a final paper.
Required Books (not available at the bookstore, you can buy them online)
Orhan Pamuk, The White Castle.
Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of the Suburbia.
Eyal Weizman, The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence from Arendt to Gaza.
Films (links through stream.nyu.edu are provided on the blog)
Zack Snyder, 300.
Faruk Aksoy, Fetih 1453 (The Conquest 1453).
Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers.
Recommended:
Marjane Satrapi, Persepolis. (Animated film based on Satrapi’s graphic novel).
The rest of the readings will be provided electronically through our course blog:
Please note that you will need to get permission to have access to this blog; it is set up as private.
So please make sure you have been granted access to both the blog and the google drive so that
when you click on the links to the readings and movies provided on the blog, you can access the
course materials.
All the weekly readings will be listed on the blog. When applicable, they will be url-linked to the pdf
files provided on the tabs of the day. The readings are subject to change (but NOT the required
books) to allow us more flexibility, but in all cases, you will always be notified on the blog’s tab for
that day.
Your reading response comments will also be posted on the blog, under the designated area of each
tab with the date of that day.
The blog address is: http://orientalismnyu.blogspot.com/
There are additional helpful resources posted on the resource tab. Please make sure you check them.
Course Format and Procedures:
We will be following the course planner that will be posted on the blog. If there are changes to the
planner, you will be notified both in class and electronically—via email. Please come to class having
done the readings assigned for that day.
Everybody is expected to actively engage with the material and contribute to the class.
This course’s objectives are: 1) to introduce students to various cultural and historical framings of the
East/West; 2) to identify the repertoires that shape these framings and the politics they inform, and
3) to synthesize these modes of cultural representation and 4) to identify how these repertoires still
The reading responses should be posted on the blog by 10pm, the day before our class.
The final paper is due on Friday May 13th, by 10pm via email.
In order to provide flexibility in our class, the electronically provided readings are subject to change. In the case
of a change, you will be notified both in class and on the blog.
Iğsız
FRSEM-UA 593.001
Tisch Hall, LC6
W 2:00-4:30pm
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Office: Rm.512, King Juan Carlos Center
Email: asli.igsiz@nyu.edu
inform politics today. Thus, the focus of the course’s activities is on intensive student engagement
with the materials in readings and discussions, and on a reflection of this in student participation in
classroom discussion.
Attendance is mandatory. You are expected to attend the class and more than two unexcused
absences will start affecting your grade negatively, this includes the final grade, by bringing the grade
down one notch.
Please make sure you have all the readings assigned for that day with you.
Finally, please keep in mind that computer (or ipad and the like) use is restricted in this class: you can
use your electronic devices to follow the electronic class readings, but if you use them for any other
purposes (such as email, chat programs, or social media such as Facebook or Twitter, etc) your
participation grade will be affected negatively. Cell phones should be switched off at all times.
Grading:
Blog Reading Responses: Every week, you will post on the blog a response to the readings
assigned for that week. You will receive feedback on these responses.
Unless marked otherwise, the entry should include: 1) A very brief (one or two sentences) summary
of the argument of the reading of choice (no, you do NOT have to engage all the readings). If the
reading material is fictional (film or novel), try to make a statement about what you think the main
point of the book/film is. 2) A very brief example as to how the author/filmmaker engages this
argument; i.e., how does the author build his/her argument? (Or if other kinds of texts—how does
the author try to make his/her points come across? Are they convincing?) How are the ideas
engaged? Do they work? 3) Strong points of the reading. 4) A new paragraph: Weaknesses and
pitfalls of the reading—possibly with examples from your area of interest, to discuss the applicability
of the concept for your own work.
And once you are done with this, in a new paragraph, write questions, and ask the main discussion
questions that you think came up from your readings for that week. These questions should be more
open and if possible, address all the readings. Try to keep it short, minimum 250 and no more than
400 (at most 450) words.
You have 10 reading responses to post, and each post is worth 3 points. When grading, I consider
the effort put into engaging the piece at hand (% 30 of final grade).
PLEASE NOTE: several times this semester, you may simply be asked to answer a question related
to the material assigned for that week. When answering, focus on the readings and build your answer
as an argument drawn from these readings.
Mid-semester Essay:
On February 24th, instead of posting your reading response on the blog, I will ask you to bring a
longer essay (minimum 500-maximum 650 words) to class, in hard copy. You will be asked a specific
question to answer, and you are fully expected to answer with examples drawn from course readings.
The reading responses should be posted on the blog by 10pm, the day before our class.
The final paper is due on Friday May 13th, by 10pm via email.
In order to provide flexibility in our class, the electronically provided readings are subject to change. In the case
of a change, you will be notified both in class and on the blog.
Iğsız
FRSEM-UA 593.001
Tisch Hall, LC6
W 2:00-4:30pm
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Office: Rm.512, King Juan Carlos Center
Email: asli.igsiz@nyu.edu
Everything you say should be supported with what you have read. The quotes from the texts, etc are
your evidence, and they need to be used to support your argument (i.e., answer to the question). If
limited space does not allow you to give lengthy quotes, just bring in page numbers where those
quotes can be found. I will check the accuracy of citation. This essay will be graded and returned to
you in class, on March 2nd, 2016. (13%)
Participation: Please note that you are required to actively participate in the class. If you have a
quiet classroom persona, please speak with me immediately. You can use computers but if you are
going to chat on the net or engage other activity unrelated to the course, it will have a direct impact
on your participation. Please switch off all phones and keep them in your bag during class.
Continuous late arrival will have an impact on your participation grade (15% of final grade)
Final Paper: Please write an analytical paper (min 7—maximum 12 pages). I will provide you with a
variety of questions as possible paper topics. (35% of final grade; 10% of this will be the effort you
put into the first draft)
Final Paper Workshop: On the last day of the class, you will workshop each other’s paper. The
genuine effort put into reading and offering constructive criticism to the papers that will be part of
the workshop will constitute your grade. (7% of final grade.) The feedback guidelines will be available
on the blog.
The first draft of your final paper is due on Wednesday April 27th by 6pm (via email).
Final paper is due on Friday May 13th by 10pm (via email)
Final Grade Breakdown:
Blog/Weekly Responses: 30%
Mid-semester Essay: 13%
Participation: 15%
Final Paper (with 10% of this grade allocated to your first draft): 35%.
Final Paper Workshop: 7%.
Final Grade Scale:
http://www.nyu.edu/registrar/transcripts-certification/grades-information.html
Writing and Intellectual Responsibility
Writing is an important part of this class. All essays should have a clear argument—thesis
statement—supported with evidence from our readings/other course materials or sources. You are
fully and directly responsible for everything submitted under your name as your own work. This
means that if you paraphrase, take direct quotations from, or even are inspired by any other source
(texts, cultural products, internet sources, or other people) you would have to cite them in your
papers. Any conduct that doesn’t comply with this rule will be considered plagiarism and would have
serious consequences including failing the course. For more on this, please consult:
http://cas.nyu.edu/page/academicintegrity
The reading responses should be posted on the blog by 10pm, the day before our class.
The final paper is due on Friday May 13th, by 10pm via email.
In order to provide flexibility in our class, the electronically provided readings are subject to change. In the case
of a change, you will be notified both in class and on the blog.
Iğsız
FRSEM-UA 593.001
Tisch Hall, LC6
W 2:00-4:30pm
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Office: Rm.512, King Juan Carlos Center
Email: asli.igsiz@nyu.edu
Some other useful resources and handouts can be found at the following website, built by one of the
top writing programs in the U.S. – a link for this is also provided on our course blog:
http://cstw.osu.edu/writingcenter/handouts
***
If you have special needs please check the following site and come and talk to me early in the
semester:
http://www.nyu.edu/life/safety-health-andwellness/students-with-disabilities.html
Some general suggestions for writing:
While writing: remain focused on your argument. Also, your answer to any question is actually a
thesis (an argument), so, support it with quotes and page numbers taken from your readings; these
are your evidence. Convince your reader that she should be reading the texts the way you do and
reach the same conclusions. Organize your papers according to your argument and the points that
you will make to support the main argument.
Also, try not to finish a paragraph with a quote, but always comment on it, integrate it into your own
argument, in other words: make the quote do the work for you! And always gesture to the main
argument when you bring in quotes… A small tip: If your space is limited, you can limit the use of
quotes to the most important ones for the paper, and for the rest, you can simply put page numbers
for your reader to see that you are still using evidence from your texts to support your main points.
Rule of thumb: When you write, whether it is a short or longer paper like your final project,
always ask yourself this question: so what? Why is this important? This is not meant to be a rude
question, but one that asks you to turn a private interest into a public one by showing the relevance
of the topic at hand.
In a longer essay, please define all your concepts in a footnote or an endnote.
Finally, not that anyone is doing or will be doing this, but I always say this: avoid all sorts of clichés
and platitudes: they are boring and don’t make you think; they give you the feeling that you are saying
something without really saying anything. For example, “it is human nature to fall in love” is a cliché
and over-generalizes everybody. Instead, please consider to break it down to who, when, where, why.
Good luck!
TENTATIVE COURSE PLANNER:
WEEK 1:
January 27
Introductions:
The reading responses should be posted on the blog by 10pm, the day before our class.
The final paper is due on Friday May 13th, by 10pm via email.
In order to provide flexibility in our class, the electronically provided readings are subject to change. In the case
of a change, you will be notified both in class and on the blog.
Iğsız
FRSEM-UA 593.001
Tisch Hall, LC6
W 2:00-4:30pm
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Office: Rm.512, King Juan Carlos Center
Email: asli.igsiz@nyu.edu
Where and When is the Orient?
WEEK 2
February 3
“East-West” and Historical Representation of Difference
Watch the films 300 [based on Frank Miller's comic book] and 1453: The Conquest [of Istanbul]
Nancy Bisaha, Creating East and West: Renaissance Humanists and Ottoman Turks. 1-93.
Edward Said, "Introduction." Orientalism. pp.1-28.
Recommended:
Stuart Hall, "The Work of Representation.” Representations. 1-46.
WEEK 3
February 10
Visual Culture and Orientalism
Ali Behdad and Luke Gartlan, “Introduction”; Ali Behdad, “The Orientalist Photograph”;
Christopher Pinney, “What’s Photography Got to Do with It?”
Photography’s Orientalism: New Essays on Colonial Representation. Ali Behdad and Luke Gartlan, eds.
pp.1-52.
Timothy Mitchell, “The World as Exhibition” Comparative Studies in Society and History. (1989) 31:2.
(1989). pp.217-236.
Reina Lewis, "'Oriental' Femininity as Cultural Commodity: Authorship, Authority, and
Authenticity." Edges of Empire: Orientalism and Visual Culture. (Malden, Oxford, and Victoria: Blackwell
Publishing, 2006). pp.95-119.
Marita Sturken and Lisa Cartwright, “Spectatorship, Power, and Knowledge”
Practices of Looking: Introduction to Visual Culture. pp.72-108.
WEEK 4
February 17
The Uncanny and the Orient
Orhan Pamuk, The White Castle.
Freud, “The Uncanny.”
The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. pp.929-952.
Sibel Erol, “Reading Orhan Pamuk’s Snow as Parody: Difference as Sameness.” Comparative Critical
Studies; 4:3 (2007). pp403-432.
Recommended:
The reading responses should be posted on the blog by 10pm, the day before our class.
The final paper is due on Friday May 13th, by 10pm via email.
In order to provide flexibility in our class, the electronically provided readings are subject to change. In the case
of a change, you will be notified both in class and on the blog.
Iğsız
FRSEM-UA 593.001
Tisch Hall, LC6
W 2:00-4:30pm
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Office: Rm.512, King Juan Carlos Center
Email: asli.igsiz@nyu.edu
Clips from the Francis Ford Coppola film, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)
and the trailer of Gary Shore, Andy Cockrum, Dracula Untold (2014).
WEEK 5
February 24
Race, Colonialism and The Exotic
Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of the Suburbia, first half of the novel
Robert Young, “Disorienting Orientalism.” White Mythologies. pp.158-180.
Ella Shohat, “Notes on the ‘Post-Colonial’.” Social Text. (1992) pp.99-113.
No reading response today. Please bring a hard copy of your mid-semester essay (minimum
500, maximum 650 words) to class.
WEEK 6
March2
Race, Sexuality, and the Exotic
Hanif Kureishi, The Buddha of the Suburbia, finish the novel.
Robert Young, “Hybridity and Diaspora” and “Sex and Inequality: The Cultural Construction of
Race.” Colonial Desire: Theory, Hybridity, Culture and Race. pp.1-26, 85-110.
Graham Huggan, “Staged Marginalities: Rushdie, Naipaul, Kureishi”
Postcolonial Exotic: Marketing the Margins. pp.83-104.
Mid-semester essay graded and returned in class.
WEEK 7
March 9
Race, Eugenics, and Civilizations:
Situating the Oriental
Arthur de Gobineau, Essay on the Inequality of Human Races (1915). pp.1-6, 23-35.
G.E. Allen, “Eugenics as the Basis of Population Policy” and “Eugenics as an International
Movement.” International Encyclopaedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. (2001) pp.4882-4896.
Selections from Norwegian Mass Killer Anders Breivik’s European Declaration of Independence: 2083.
Samuel Huntington, “Economics, Demography, and the Challenger Civilizations”, "The West and
the Rest: Intercivilizational Issues," and "The West, Civilizations, and Civilization." The Clash of
Civilizations and the Remaking of the New World Order. pp.102-121, 183-206 and 301-321.
The reading responses should be posted on the blog by 10pm, the day before our class.
The final paper is due on Friday May 13th, by 10pm via email.
In order to provide flexibility in our class, the electronically provided readings are subject to change. In the case
of a change, you will be notified both in class and on the blog.
Iğsız
FRSEM-UA 593.001
Tisch Hall, LC6
W 2:00-4:30pm
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Office: Rm.512, King Juan Carlos Center
Email: asli.igsiz@nyu.edu
Ann Stoler, “Imperial Debris: On Ruins and Ruination.” Cultural Anthropology. 23:2 (May 2008)
pp.191-219
WEEK 8
March 16
Spring Break
WEEK 9
March 23
Eurocentrism and its Discontents:
Violence, History, and Race Politics
Laleh Khalili, Time in the Shadows: Confinement in Counterinsurgencies. pp.1-43; 239-250.
Ann Stoler, “Colonial Aphasia: Race and Disabled Histories in France.” Public Culture 23:1 (2011).
pp.121-156.
Watch: Gillo Pontecorvo, The Battle of Algiers
+
Final paper questions/options will be discussed in class and posted on the blog today.
WEEK 10
March 30
Humanitarianism, Violence, and Eurocentrism
Miriam Ticktin, “Policing and Humanitarianism in France.” Interventions: International Journal of
Postcolonial Studies 7:3 (2005). pp.347-368
Miriam Ticktin, “How Biology Travels: A Humanitarian Trip.” Body and Society. 17:2&3 (2011).
pp.139-158
Lila Abu Lughod, "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural
Relativism and its Others." American Anthropologist. 104:3. pp.783-790.
Mark Mazower, No Enchanted Palace: The Ideological Origins of the United Nations. pp.1-65.
WEEK 11
April 6
The Question of Rights and the Culture of Commodity
David Harvey, “Introduction”; “Freedom is Another Word” and “Uneven Geographic
Developments.” A Brief Introduction to Neoliberalism. 1-38; 87-119.
The reading responses should be posted on the blog by 10pm, the day before our class.
The final paper is due on Friday May 13th, by 10pm via email.
In order to provide flexibility in our class, the electronically provided readings are subject to change. In the case
of a change, you will be notified both in class and on the blog.
Iğsız
FRSEM-UA 593.001
Tisch Hall, LC6
W 2:00-4:30pm
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Office: Rm.512, King Juan Carlos Center
Email: asli.igsiz@nyu.edu
Aslı Iğsız, "Palimpsests of Multiculturalism and Museumization of Culture: Greco-Turkish Religious
Minority Exchange Museum as an Istanbul European Capital of Culture Project." Comparative Studies
of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East. (August 2015). 324-345.
Aslı Iğsız, “Brand Turkey and the Gezi Protests: Authoritarianism in Flux, Law, and Neoliberalism,”
in The Making of a Protest Movement in Turkey: #Occupy Gezi. Ed. Umut Özkırımlı. 25-49.
Recommended:
John Chalcraft, Popular Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East.
(Selections TBA; the book is forthcoming in March 2016)
WEEK 12
April 13
Branding the Orient and Image Wars
Melissa Aronczyk, Branding the Nation: The Global Business of National Identity (book available online through
our library; login through library.nyu.edu and you can read it). pp. 1-33.
David Gertner and Philip Kotler, “How Can a Place Correct a Negative Image?”
Place Branding 1:1 (2004). 50–57
Simon Anholt, “Place Branding: Is it Marketing?” Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. 8:1 (2008:4). 1-6.
Simon Anholt, “Nation Brand as Context and Reputation.” Place Branding 1:3 (2005) 224–228
Andrea Insch, “Managing the Reputation of Places in Crisis.” Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. 10:3,
(2014). 171–173
Eli Avraham, "Spinning Liabilities into Assets in Place Branding: Toward a New Typology"
Place Branding and Public Diplomacy. 10:3, (2014). 174-185.
Frank Go, Ulla Hakala, and Arje Lemmetyinen, “Cultural Entrepreneurship” Place Branding and Public
Diplomacy 9 (2013). 141–142.
Robert Govers, “Brand Dubai and its Competitors in the Middle East.” Place Branding and Public
Diplomacy. 8:1 (2012). 48-57.
Youtube videos: Istanbul commercial: "Timeless City"
and Egypt commercial: "Where it All Begins."
(try to read the comments underneath if you have time).
Aslı Iğsız, “From Alliance of Civilizations to Branding the Nation: Turkish Studies, Image Wars, and
Politics of Comparison in An Age of Neoliberalism.” Turkish Studies. (December 2014). pp. 1-14.
WEEK 13
April 20
The reading responses should be posted on the blog by 10pm, the day before our class.
The final paper is due on Friday May 13th, by 10pm via email.
In order to provide flexibility in our class, the electronically provided readings are subject to change. In the case
of a change, you will be notified both in class and on the blog.
Iğsız
FRSEM-UA 593.001
Tisch Hall, LC6
W 2:00-4:30pm
Office Hours: Wednesday 12:00pm-2:00pm
Office: Rm.512, King Juan Carlos Center
Email: asli.igsiz@nyu.edu
The Image of Humanitarianism and War
Eyal Weizman, The Least of All Possible Evils: Humanitarian Violence From Gaza to Arendt
WEEK 14
April 27
Review Session
First Draft of Final Papers Due Today.
WEEK 15
May 4
Final Paper Workshop
The reading responses should be posted on the blog by 10pm, the day before our class.
The final paper is due on Friday May 13th, by 10pm via email.
In order to provide flexibility in our class, the electronically provided readings are subject to change. In the case
of a change, you will be notified both in class and on the blog.