Humanities Arts Cultural Stu 0237 - Cannibalism and Art

Europeans frequently made images of the sacrificing, butchering, and devouring of bodies when imagining the Americas. They depicted people as cannibalistic monsters. But as many in the Americas have recognized, cannibalism is also a powerful model for a decolonizing form. Cannibalism, as cultural ingestion, is a model in which one is nourished by the other's strengths while excreting that which is of no use. As the cannibal transforms the self through the incorporation of the other, its trope will help us recalibrate notions of cultural appropriation, plagiarism, sampling, influence, contamination, and hybridity. Beginning with Brazilian thinker Oswald de Andrade's 1928 Manifesto Antropofago (Cannibalist Manifesto), this course analyzes the politics of predation through the visual. Screenings of How Tasty was my Little Frenchman, visual analysis of casta (racial caste) paintings, and study of museological displays allow us to consider the intersectional relationships of monstrosity, sexuality, and capitalism.

Culture, Humanities, and Languages Independent Work Multiple Cultural Perspectives Writing and Research In this course, students are expected to spend 8-10 hours weekly on work and preparation outside of class time.