Empires of Light

Vision, Visibility and Power in Colonial India

Niharika Dinkar

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Hardback

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English

Manchester University Press
17 September 2019

Colonial art; History of art & design styles: c 1800 to c 1900; Individual artists, art monographs; Art techniques & principles; Colonialism & imperialism

Series: Rethinking Art's Histories

Light was central to the visual politics and imaginative geographies of empire, even beyond its role as a symbol of knowledge and progress in post-Enlightenment narratives. This book describes how imperial mappings of geographical space in terms of 'cities of light' and 'hearts of darkness' coincided with the industrialisation of light (in homes, streets, theatres) and its instrumentalisation through new representative forms (photography, film, magic lanterns, theatrical lighting). Cataloguing the imperial vision in its engagement with colonial India, the book evaluates responses by the celebrated Indian painter Ravi Varma (1848-1906) to reveal the centrality of light in technologies of vision, not merely as an ideological effect but as a material presence that produces spaces and inscribes bodies. -- .

By: Niharika Dinkar
Imprint: Manchester University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm, Spine: 19mm
ISBN: 9781526139634
ISBN 10: 1526139634
Series: Rethinking Art's Histories
Pages: 304
Publication Date: 17 September 2019
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction: writing photo-graphic histories of empire Part I: Technologies of illumination 1 Through the glass darkly: the phantasmagoria of Elephanta 2 Four acts of seeing: the veil as technology of illumination Part II: ‘Visibility is a trap’: battles of the veil 3 ‘Purdah hai purdah!’: proscenium theatre and technologies of illusionism 4 Erotics of the body politic: the naked and the clothed Part III: Chiaroscuro, portraiture and subjectivity 5 Private lives and interior spaces: masculine subjects in Ravi Varma’s scholar paintings 6 Impossible subjects: the subaltern in the shadows Postscript Index -- .

Niharika Dinkar is Associate Professor of South Asian Art History and Visual Culture at Boise State University -- .