Research master thesis | Arts and Culture (research) (MA)
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This thesis analyzed the development of discourse on extra-European art in art historical surveys published between 1842 and 1900 and how this discourse was influenced by the development and...Show moreThis thesis analyzed the development of discourse on extra-European art in art historical surveys published between 1842 and 1900 and how this discourse was influenced by the development and institutionalisation of art history and by discourses on extra-European arts from other, related, scientific disciplines. It argues that the selective influence of art history as an institutionalizing discipline and other scholarly disciplines with an interest in extra- European art enlarged, changed and complicated the understanding of extra-European art as expressed in these discourses. Moreover, it substantiates that while certain dimensions of the understanding of extra-European art may have seemed to stay constant, this does not constitute a uniform understanding of this art. The findings are based on the analysis of the Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte (1842) by Franz Kugler, the Handbuch der Kunstgeschichte (1855) by Anton Springer and the Geschichte der Kunst aller Zeiten und Völker (1900) by Karl Woermann with the use of the method of Critical Discourse Analysis, which investigates not just the texts but also their scholarly environment, and an extensive close reading of the three surveys.Show less
