Rreminder: Talk on 17th June 2005 - ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­PANOPTIC BODIES: BLACK EUNUCHS IN THE TOPKAPI PALACE

The PUKAR Gender and Space Project 

presents a talk

by 

Jateen Lad
on


­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­PANOPTIC BODIES:  BLACK EUNUCHS IN THE TOPKAPI PALACE

 
date:                 Friday, 17 June 2005

time:                 6.30 p.m.

place:               Max Mueller Bhavan, Kala Ghoda, Mumbai

 
Abstract

This lecture engages the disciplines of architecture, philology and theology to 
explore the notion of the harem as a forbidden and guarded sanctuary in both 
ritual and palatial contexts. The fantasme of the black eunuch in the Grand 
Seraglio has been a silent but persistent presence in representations of the 
imperial harem; either a perverse shadow in the margins of Orientalist 
representations or the epitome of loyalty in more contemporary readings. This 
paper enters the labyrinthine passages of the quintessential harem, the Topkapi 
Palace in Istanbul, in an attempt to better understand the body of the eunuch 
and the nature of the imperial harem as an actual space. There follows a 
consideration of how the presence, identity and the subtleties of power 
acquired by the black eunuchs came to be embodied architecturally. In the 
process, it will be shown how the notions of surveillance and mediation - 
qualities embodied in the function and body of the eunuch - permeated the enclo
sing walls of the harem to infuse deep into its inner structure. 

 Jateen Lad studied architecture at Cambridge, UK and has practised in London, 
Berlin, Rotterdam and East Africa and is design critic at a number of London 
schools. As a research fellow with the Aga Khan Program at Harvard and MIT his 
writings engaged architecture, philology and theology to explore the notion of 
the harem as a forbidden and guarded sanctuary in both ritual and palatial 
contexts. He is currently establishing a design studio in Pondicherry and is 
researching notions of display and multiplicity in the Hawa Mahal at Jaipur. 

 
PUKAR (Partners for Urban Knowledge Action and Research)
Mumbai
 
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