Visual Media Workshop – Anne A. Cheng, in conversation on her book, Ornamentalism
Anne A. Cheng, Department of English; Program in American Studies
April 13, 2021 · 12:00 pm—1:00 pm · virtual
Program in European Cultural Studies
ECS Visual Media Workshop
Tuesday, April 13th
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm EST
Anne A. Cheng, in conversation on her latest book, Ornamentalism
Virtual workshop via Zoom
Zoom link: https://princeton.zoom.us/j/92655460818
Open to Princeton graduate students, faculty, students, and Princeton University-affiliated accounts.
Please join us for our ECS workshop on Visual Media in conversation with Prof. Anne Anlin Cheng (Professor of English and American Studies, and affiliated faculty in the Program in Gender and Sexuality Studies and the Committee on Film Studies) on her latest book, Ornamentalism (Oxford University Press, 2018).
As a reading group, Visual Media proposes to spotlight the visual as central to all mediation. Even what may be considered textual, we propose, could be rethought in light of the visual aspects of reading (paragraphs, pages, linearity, etc.) What’s more, we propose to privilege the visual, whether textual, filmic or pictorial, as the source of archives and history-writing. What kinds of new histories and stories can be told and thought out through an explicitly visual approach versus others (textual, aural, etc.)? The approach here is one of defamiliarization, one that would allow us to look at known historical moments in a new light.
Ornamentalism offers many avenues for considering the role of media aesthetics and the many registers of the visible in defining our perception of reality. The book tracks the visual language that defines Asiatic femininity in Western culture and its complex relationship to the ornamental object. By reading orientalism and ‘ornament’ as mutually enforcing categories that define Asian female subjecthood, Ornamentalism offers a radically new lens for interpreting the relationship between the visual, the social and the political.
Please find attached a link to the selected chapters for the group discussion and we look forward to seeing you there!
Link to Ornamentalism (Oxford UP, 2018) in PUL:
https://catalog.princeton.edu/catalog/11950408
Selected readings for the group:
– Introduction
– Chapter 3: Blue Willow
– Chapter 5: Dolls
For any questions or concerns contact the organizers, Gabriella A. Ferrari (gferrari@princeton.edu) or Akrish Adhikari (akrisha@princeton.edu)
