DD8002 “Ways of Seeing the Divine In Asian Art”
Academic Year: Fall 2013
Academic Unit: 3 AU
Time: Thursdays from 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.
Location: ART-B1-14
Professor: Sujatha Arundathi Meegama
Email: sujathameegama@ntu.edu.sg
Office Hours: Thursdays from 2:00-3:00 p.m. or by appointment (Room 20, 4th floor,
ADM).
Learning Objective
Students will learn the basic critical toolbox in Art History—visual analysis—as well as
writing research papers.
Content
This course explores a range of divine objects in Asian art and the diverse contexts in
which they exist—how is the divine conceived of and then seen or used by various
religious communities in Asia? Why do devotees offer food, clothing, music and dancing
to divine images? Why are some divine objects hidden, while others are even taken
outside the temple space on processions in the village and the city? Why do devotees
create and worship non-anthropomorphic forms of the divine? How can a collection of
diverse objects be seen as an “image” of the divine? How do sacred images function
outside traditional religious spaces? Beginning with the debate on whether the Buddha
was meant to be conceived in the human form and seen, we will explore these and other
questions as we examine living images, hidden ones, gigantic sculptures, miniature ones,
traveling icons, dead bodies, and reused images in the temple, the village, the city, and
museum contexts. Framed as seminar-style discussion sessions, this course emphasizes
Singapore’s diverse religious traditions and material culture, and hence requires fieldtrips
to local temples and museums.
Learning Outcome:
Students will learn the skills of articulating their understanding of an object through
writing papers, discussing scholarly readings, and producing a creative project.
Student Assessment:
Visual Analysis (3 pages): 20%
Museum Visit Paper: (5 Pages): 30%
Participation/Discussions/Presentations/Written Responses: 20%
Creative Project: 30%
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Class Policies:
*Attendance: Please be on time for class—repeated tardiness is disruptive to your
classmates. Note that attendance is counted from the first day of class. ADM has a
strict policy regarding absences—after three or more absences, you will receive a
warning letter from the Academic Chair. Afterwards, your grade will drop by increments
of five percent for every absence (please see pages 19-21 in the ADM Handbook).
*Readings: All readings are posted on eduveNTUre, or online, in which case I have
provided the URL. For effective classroom discussion, you will need to bring a copy of
the relevant text with you to class, along with your reading notes/responses (these could
include a combination of specific quotations and ideas from the text together with your
own comments and questions about the text).
*Participation: Note that simply attending class does not equal participation! All
students are required to participate in group discussions based on that particular week’s
topic: this could consist of a brief visual analysis of one image, a comparison between
two images, questions about that particular week’s assigned reading, and/or group
presentations. You will be graded on the frequency and quality of your contribution to
classroom discussion. I realize that it is difficult for some of us to speak-up, so I will
factor improvement and effort into my assessment of your class participation.
Discussions/Presentations:
Each week, a group of students will lead us in discussion by bringing in an image or a
film clip/video clip related to that week’s topic. But this does not mean that the other
students do not need to participate in class discussion. For a successful class discussion,
everyone needs to share their thoughts and questions about that week’s topic/s.
Written Responses:
In addition to discussing images and assigned readings, all students will be asked to
reflect on each class session—this brief written response of 100-300 words could take the
form of what you learned each day in the readings and in the discussions. It could also
take the form of questions that you have at the end of each meeting. These response
sheets need to be turned in at the end of class. These will take the form of your journal
for the entire semester. You are free to add to this journal outside class hours. These
responses will be counted towards your participation grade and they all need to be turned
in stapled together at the end of the semester.
*Late Work: All assignments need to be printed and brought to class. If you turn in
your work late, you will be penalized one grade increment per day. If you arrange with
the instructor before the deadline for an extension, you will only receive half this penalty.
If you are unable to attend class the day that an assignment is due, you must email the
assignment to the instructor before the class time and turn in a hard copy during the next
meeting.
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*Laptops: laptops, iPads, kindles, and tablets may be used in class to take notes and to
read assigned readings during class discussion. However, if the class finds these
electronic gadgets to be too distracting (i.e. being used for email and facebook), I will
need to ban them from class.
*Academic Honesty: Plagiarism is defined as the use of intellectual material produced
by another person without acknowledging its source. Plagiarism is a serious violation of
academic and student conduct rules and is punishable with a failing grade and possibly
more severe action.
*Disability Accommodation: Please let me know during the first week of the semester if
you require special accommodations for class and assignments.
Books on Reserve at ADM Library:
Eck, Diane L. Darsan Seeing the Divine Image in India. New York: Columbia University
Press, 1998.
D’Alleva, Anne. Look Again! Art History and Critical Theory. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall, 2005.
Dehejia, Vidya. Discourses in Early Buddhist Art: Visual Narratives of India. Delhi:
Munshiram Manoharlal, 1997.
N8193.I4D322
_____. The Sensuous and the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India. 2002.
NB1007.S67D322
Granoff, Phyllis and Koichi Shinohara. Images in Asian Religions: Texts and Contexts.
Vancouver, B. C.: University of British Columbia Press, London: Eurospan, 2004.
BL1033.I31
McDaniel, Justin. The Lovelorn Ghost and the Magical Monk: Practicing Buddhism in
Modern Thailand. 2011.
Morgan, David. The Sacred Gaze: Religious Visual Culture in Theory and Practice.
University of California Press, 2005.
N7790.M847
Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. Writing Analytically. 5th ed. Boston: Wadsworth,
Cengage Learning, 2009.
Sharf, Robert H. and Elizabeth Horton Sharf. Living Images: Japanese Buddhist Icons in
Context. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001.
BQ5115.J3L785
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CLASS SCHEDULE: While assignment due dates remain firm, the instructor reserves
the right to change the assigned readings within reason.
WEEK 1
August 15
(THU) “Introduction: What is Visual Analysis?”
Writing Assignment: Visual Analysis (Due: September 26)
WEEK 2
August 22
(THU) “Seeing the Buddha”
**Huntington, Susan L. “Early Buddhist Art and the Theory of
Aniconism.” Art Journal, Vol. 49, No. 4 (Winter 1990): 401-408.
**Dehejia, Vidya. “Aniconism and the Multivalence of Emblems.” Ars
Orientalis 21 (1991): 45-66.
• Due: Two Pages of Free Writing for Visual Analysis Essay
WEEK 3
August 29
(THU) “Seeing Hindu Gods and Goddesses”
**Kaimal, Padma. “Learning to see the Goddess Once Again: Male and
Female in Balance at the Kailasanath Temple in Kancipuram.” Journal
of the American Academy of Religion. Vol. 73, No. 1 (March 2005): 4587.
• Due: Paragraph with a Point for Visual Analysis Essay
WEEK 4
September 5 (THU) “Gods on the Move: Processions in South India and in Singapore”
**David, Richard. “Chola Bronzes in Procession.” In The Sensuous and
the Sacred: Chola Bronzes from South India, edited by Vidya Dehejia.
46-63. New York: American Federation of Art, 2002.
**Sinha, Vineeta. “Gods on the Move: Hindu Chariot Processions in
Singapore.” In South Asian Religions on Display: Religious Processions
in South Asia and the Diaspora, edited by Knut Jacobsen. 159-177.
London: Routledge, 2008.
• Due: Thesis Statement and Organization for Visual Analysis Essay
WEEK 5
September 12 (THU) “Gigantic Gods”
**Becker, Catherine. “Not Your Average Boar: The Colossal Varaha at
Eran, an Iconographic Innovation.” Artibus Asiae (Fall 2010)
• Due: List of Quotations or Paraphrases for Visual Analysis Essay
WEEK 6
September 19 (THU) “Small Gods”
**Sinha, Vineeta. Religion and Commodification: Merchandising
Diasporic Hinduism. London and New York: Routledge, 2010.
• Due: Draft of Visual Analysis Essay
WEEK 7
September 26 (THU) “Popular Images of the Divine”
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**MacWilliams, Mark Wheeler. “Japanese Comic Books and Religion:
Osamu Tezuka's story of the Buddha.” In Japan Pop: Inside the World of
Japanese Popular Culture, edited by Timothy Craig. Page #? Armonk,
N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 2000.
• Due: Visual Analysis Essay
• Writing Assignment: Museum Visit Paper (Due: October 31)
RECESS WEEK
WEEK 8
October 10
(THU) “Displaying the Divine in the Museum”
**Paine, Crispin. Godly Things: Museums, Objects, and Religion. 2000
• Due: Paper Proposal for Museum Visit Paper
WEEK 9
October 17
(THU) “Dead Bodies and Ghosts”
**McDaniel, Justin. “Art and Objects.” In The Lovelorn Ghost and the
Magical Monk: Practicing Buddhism in Modern Thailand. 161-221.
2011.
• Due: Introduction and organization of Museum Visit Paper
WEEK 10
October 24
(THU) “Keramats of Southeast Asia”
**Goh, Beng-Lan, “Spirit Cults and Construction Sites: Trans-ethnic
Popular Religion and Keramat Symbolism in Contemporary Malaysia.”
In Engaging the Spirit World: Popular Beliefs and Practices in Modern
Southeast Asia. Kirsten W. Endres and Andrea Lauser, eds. Berghahn
Books. 2011
• Due: 5-page Draft of Museum Visit Paper
WEEK 11
October 31
(THU) “Office Hours to Discuss Final Creative Project”
• Due: Museum Paper (6 pages)
WEEK 12
November 7 (THU) “Office Hours to Discuss Final Creative Project” (tentative)
• Due: 1-page proposal of final creative project
WEEK 13
November 14 (THU) “Student Presentations of Final Creative Projects”
WEEK 14
November 21 (THU) “Office Hours to Discuss Final Creative Project”
Final Creative Projects Due: Monday, December 2, 2013 (9:00-12:00 p.m. critique)
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