Through the Looking Glass - Visualizing Place and Others in China

The Aesthetics Out of Bounds Lecture Series presents

Katheryn Linduff

"Through the Looking Glass - Visualizing Place and Others in China"

Monday, May 1 5:00pm University Center, McConomy Auditorium - on the Carnegie Mellon campus


"Through the Looking Glass - Visualizing Place and Others in China" is also the title of Katheryn Linduff's current book-length project about cultural boundaries, or about depicting who is and who is not Chinese and why that is a constant theme in Chinese visual and performing arts. Topics included in the book are: Archaeological Settings and Barbarians inside the Core of Early China; Regularization of a World View and Official Art that Expresses It; Ritualized Artifacts and Identity: Outsiders on the Inside of China; To Be or Not to Be Chinese During The Song Empire; Inside the Inside: The Art of Propaganda and Protest; Contemporary Identity: Global Outsiders or Insiders? This talk will draw on all of these themes in some fashion, but will concentrate especially on the much-illustrated story of a Chinese woman named Lady Wenji, who spent her young adult life during the second century CE with nomadic peoples beyond the Great Wall. Of interest is how and why her story has been sustained and illustrated throughout Chinese history, from the 12th through the 21st centuries. The story spells out the timeless dilemma of trying to maintain Confucian notions of loyalty and duty to China vs. the world of individuals and their relationships, especially those with ethnic outsiders or "barbarians."

Katheryn Linduff is the University Center for International Studies Research Professor in the Department of Art and Architecture at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on Eurasian and Chinese art history and archaeology. Selected publications include Gender and Chinese Archeology with Sun Yan (editors), Altamira Press, June 2004; The Beginnings of Metallurgy from the Urals to the Yellow Rivers, (editor), Mellen Press, April 2004; and Chifeng International Archaelogical Research Project, Regional Settlement Survey in Eastern Inner Mongolia: A Methodological Exploration, Beijing: Science Press, 2003.

Aesthetics Out of Bounds is a series of free public lectures being offered at Carnegie Mellon University during the fall 2005 and spring of 2006. Sponsored by the Center for the Arts in Society with a grant from the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the series features a distinguished group of internationally recognized scholars who will discuss the plastic, visual, performing, and literary arts in multiple historical contexts. Drawing scholars from the United States and Europe, the series will chart out new directions in the fields of aesthetics, arts historiography, critical theory and visual culture for a broad and intellectually engaged audience.

For more information about the series please visit; http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/mwitmore/aesthetics/index.html