HSOC-227: Histories of Chinese Ceramics

Stemming from the ubiquity of "Made in China" in our daily lives, this course focuses on the history of Chinese ceramics from various perspectives, with particular emphasis on global frameworks. The history of ceramics in China spans 14,000 years and geographic sites of production too numerous to count. Ceramics are among the earliest human artifacts known from China. They have been a constant part of everyday life, ritual practice, imperial ceremony and global trade yet largely divorced from mainstream art historical scholarship. Aside from a few sessions devoted to standard chronological accounts of ceramics, this course is topical and organized around themes. This course's first aim is to give students a basic understanding of the technical and social aspects of Chinese ceramic production: forms and decoration of Chinese ceramics, the porcelain center of Jingdezhen in particular, and the political and cultural aspects of porcelain's consumption. The second aim is to explore how histories of ceramics have been written and consider the broader social processes that have influenced the study of Chinese ceramics. A central concern will be to reconstruct as a class the history of the study of ceramics as a vital part of understanding the "China" of chinaware more broadly.