The Course

Since Tibet was absorbed into the People’s Republic of China some 50 years ago, it has undergone a turbulent and contested history. But since about 1990 the years of conflict and warfare over Tibet’s status and sovereignty have increasingly given place to arguments about culture. International powers have been drawn into arguments about tradition, heritage, culture and continuity, and accusations of cultural extinction or degradation have become common, with many people saying that Tibetan culture as a distinctive entity had been lost from Tibet or wiped out, or replaced by a pale simulacrum. How useful or meaningful is this kind of narrative? Is it even possible or productive to describe contemporary Tibetan culture in a way that might not be part of in the political debate? And what is a culture anyway? In this course, we study films, poems, stories, paintings, pop songs and other forms of cultural product that have been made by Tibetans in the last 3 or 4 decades, together with some made by others in their name or in their areas. We discuss questions of identity, survival, history and the politics of representation. We’ll look at questions about cultures and continuity; about whether and how we as outsiders can come to understand or interpret the culture of a country whose language and history we may barely know; about the interplay of texts, politics, and power; and about ways of reading and interpreting artworks and the meanings that they generate in politically charged societies and communities. The course will be primarily a seminar led by students, together with lectures. Besides theoretical and background readings, students will watch films and TV shows, study artpieces, read stories and listen to pop songs. Translations will be provide