Encounters with the Ottoman Miniature

The dominant form of Ottoman pictorial art until the eighteenth century, miniatures have traditionally been studied as reflecting the socio-historical contexts, aesthetic concerns and artistic tastes of the era within which they were produced. Begum Ozden Fyrat proposes instead a radical re-reading of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century miniatures in the light of contemporary critical theory, highlighting the viewer's encounter with the image. Encounters with the Ottoman Miniature employs contemporary concepts such as the gaze, frame/framing, reading and re-reading, drawing on thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Roland Barthes and Gilles Deleuze to establish the vibrant cultural agency of miniature paintings. With analysis that illuminates both the social and political situations in which these miniatures were painted as well as emphasising the miniature's contemporary relevance, Firat presents an important new re-imagining of this art form.

Begum Ozden Firat is Assistant Professor, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Department of Sociology, Istanbul. She holds a PhD in Visual Culture from the University of Amsterdam and is the co-editor of Commitment and Complicity in Cultural Theory and Practice (2009).

Introduction
Chapter 1: Reading in Detail: Adam and Eve in Close-up
Chapter 2: The Intimate Look: Seeing, Touching, and Gazing at the Female Body
Chapter 3: Double Encounters: The Circumcision Parade in Intervals Visualizing an Imperial Festival
Chapter 4: Portrait of a Sultan: Ornamentation at Work Sultan Ahmed III Enthroned
Chapter 5: The Miniature, The Horizontal, and The Symptom
Chapter 6: Looking through Metaphors: From the Window toward the Threshold
Conclusion