A new book, edited by COTCA director, Dr Jeremy E. Taylor, is now available for pre-order from Bloomsbury.
Visual Histories of Occupation: A Transcultural Dialogue, is available to order here
What does foreign occupation look like? How does occupation shape visual expression and visual cultures? And how do those involved in occupation (as occupiers, 'the occupied', or others) respond to the new and often highly restrictive circumstances that occupation imposes on the realm of visual expression more generally? These are the questions which inspire this volume.
Contributors explore specific cases of foreign occupation from around the world, across the 20th century, and from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. They do this not only to note the similarities, links and points of contact which bring disparate examples of occupation into dialogue with one another, but also as a way to illustrate how an emphasis on 'the visual' can help inform our understanding of occupation more broadly.
The book is comprised of 12 core chapters and is structured around 4 methodological and conceptual themes: (i) 'Ways of Seeing' under occupation; (ii) artistic and visual responses to occupation; (iii) picturing occupation; and (iv) visualizing and remembering landscapes of occupation. The book adopts a consciously 'transcultural' approach through which contributors examine the influence of specific cases, memories and legacies of occupation on later periods (or those which occur in other parts of the world). While each contributor examines specific cases of occupation from across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and elsewhere, they also engage in a wider dialogue between chapters which helps to elucidate commonalities and points of comparison across political and temporal boundaries.
Visual Histories of Occupation: A Transcultural Dialogue
Posted on Wednesday 22nd July 2020