New Book: 'Visual Histories of South Asia' by Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes and Marcus Banks (2018, Primus)
We are delighted to announce the publication of 'Visual Histories of South Asia', edited by Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes and Marcus Banks (with a Foreword by Christopher Pinney). This volume is one of the first comprehensive contributions to the rapidly developing cross-disciplinary scholarship that connects visual studies with South Asian historiography. The key purpose of the book is to introduce scholars and students of South Asian and Indian history to a detailed evaluation of visual research methods as a valid research framework for new historical studies. The volume identifies and evaluates current developments in visual sociology and digital anthropology relevant to the study of contemporary South Asian constructions of personal and national identities. The thirteen contributions selected for this volume are of immediate relevance to visual theorists and historians, sociologists and cultural anthropologists, as well as to scholars of South Asian history and culture. The volume includes contributions by Denis Vidal, Marcus Banks, Josefine Baark, Thomas Simpson, Teresa Segura-Garcia, Annamaria Motrescu-Mayes, Imma Ramos, Xavier Guegan, Adrian P. Ruprecht, Aaron Bryant, Ronie Parciak, Souvik Naha, and Siddharth Pandey.
Reviews:
'This volume provides a rich feast of materials for anyone interested in the visual cultures and history of visual representation in South Asia and is notable as well for its fascinating exploration of the intersection of Western and local photographic practices’ – David MacDougall, Australian National University.
'This is a remarkable, genuinely interdisciplinary collection, and both a marvellously rich addition to the study of the life of visual images in South Asia, and a highly sophisticated contribution to debates of the interdisciplinary study of visual culture' – James Laidlaw, William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology, Head of Division, Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge.
'This is an outstanding contribution to a timely and relevant focus on transregional visual history and historiography of South Asia. This rescaling of what is often times an India-centric visual history is accompanied by remarkably heterogeneous approaches from across disciplines and methods, challenging notions of political, cultural, religious or ethnic reifications. The book offers insights into original material and a framework of rich epistemologies, entanglements, relationalities and translations. It will encourage new generations of scholars to further push boundaries of established canons and exploring new frontiers of visual culture and history studies' – Christiane Brosius, Chair of Visual & Media Anthropology, Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies, Heidelberg University.
'This is a unique and excellent contribution to the field of South Asian visual studies, art history and cultural analysis. This text takes an interdisciplinary approach while keeping its focus on the visual, on material cultural and on art and aesthetics. It brings together empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated analysis on representations from colonial and post-colonial eras ranging from colonial era photography to "tribal art," temple and video art. In doing so it bridges a major gap in our understanding of South Asia's modern history by using the idiom of visual culture and the politics of representation' – Kamran Asdar Ali, University of Texas at Austin
Link to online stores: https://amzn.to/2y2d2aE and http://www.primusbooks.com/showbookdetail.asp?bookid=202
