ENGLISH

Empires of Light: Vision, Visibility and Power in Colonial India

Book information

Publisher
Manchester University Press
Year
2019
ISBN
9781526139634
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
16 MB (16580407 bytes)
Pages
284\256
Time added
2020-11-08 05:19:53

Description

Light was central to the visual politics and imaginative geographies of empire, even beyond its role as a symbol of knowledge and progress in post-Enlightenment narratives. This book describes how imperial mappings of geographical space in terms of ‘cities of light’ and ‘hearts of darkness’ coincided with the industrialisation of light (in homes, streets, theatres) and its instrumentalisation through new representative forms (photography, film, magic lanterns, theatrical lighting). Cataloguing the imperial vision in its engagement with colonial India, the book evaluates responses by the celebrated Indian painter Ravi Varma (1848–1906) to reveal the centrality of light in technologies of vision, not merely as an ideological effect but as a material presence that produces spaces and inscribes bodies.

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