After break, we’ll be reading one of the most famous story collections in world literature: The Arabian Nights (also known as One Thousand and One Nights). Though, like many of our texts, it was composed by multiple authors over centuries, the surviving versions are clearly influenced by the rich culture of the cosmopolitan Islamic world.
This assignment will ask you to take a little trip uptown. We’re lucky to have access to one of the greatest collections of Islamic Art in the world. The Metropolitan Museum of Art recently reopened their collection after a multi-year renovation.
First, visit the collection. You can visit the Met for free (just tell the ticket seller that you would like to visit for free; feel free to say that you’re there for a class). Once you get inside, grab a map and head to the fifteen rooms that hold the Islamic art collection (galleries 450-464). Then explore! It’s a peaceful and thought-provoking place, so be sure to take the time to relish that feeling of tranquility, the respite from the busy New York streets. While it’s not required, I highly recommend the (free) guided tour of the Islamic collection, which takes place every day at 2:15PM. This will give you a good overview of the cultures and the cultural artifacts on display. Feel free to go to the museum in a group—either of classmates or other friends or family.
As you explore the collection, try to get a sense of the aesthetics of Islamic art. “Aesthetics” is the name we give to the study of beauty in art. What, from your observations, would you say characterizes the aesthetics of these pieces? What kinds of art seem to be valued? Are there particular patterns or shapes or color palettes that you see repeated? One way to think of aesthetics is as a kind of artistic language: what components, what vocabulary, make up that visual language? It’s a good idea to take notes while you’re at the collection so that you can collect your thoughts in writing later.
As you start reading The Arabian Nights (read pgs. 5-30 [up through the seventh night] for Tuesday and pg. 30-66 [up through the Tale of the Enchanted King] for class discussion on Thursday), try to think about whether you see any of those aesthetic elements from the museum also valued in the stories. For example, is a certain kind of pattern that’s explored in visual art also echoed in the construction of the stories? What kind of pattern is it? Of course, the written word can’t be visual in the same way that a painting can, but see if you can make any aesthetic connections to the visual art you saw.
This assignment, due Tuesday 4/14, will consist of a post of your own with three elements:
1) An image of your favorite piece in the collection. (Selfies welcome but not required. Make sure the picture isn’t huge or we’ll run out of space! Here’s a tutorial on resizing pictures on a PC, and here’s the same for a Mac.)
2) A brief paragraph outlining your sense of Islamic aesthetics based on the items in the collection. (You may not feel like much of an expert yet, but that’s okay! Just try to get your thoughts into words.)
3) Another brief paragraph drawing a connection (or connections) to the readings.
As always, let me know if you have any questions. I’ll have access to email over break.