This course will provide a broad historical introduction to textile arts in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, the Americas and Australia. Contrasting the role and importance of textiles in Western and non-Western societies, the course will examine textiles in court and village cultures, as symbols and markers of religious and social affiliations and hierarchy; the impact of colonialism, trade and industrialisation on the organisation of textile manufacture and traditional gender roles; and the evolution of textile motifs, designs, materials and technology. The history of textile collecting, display and analysis will also be studied.

On successful completion of this course, students should be able to:

1. recognise key attributes of textiles and apply these to the identification of textiles;
2. relate textiles to their specific aesthetic, historical and contemporary milieu;
3. reflect on and apply key concepts in understanding textile history;
4. analyse the ways in which meanings are formed and communicated by textiles;
   and
5. research, select, combine and interpret examples of textiles and inegrate key
   textual sources to develop and present, orally in writing, their own
   perspectives on textile art.

Barber, E J W, Women's Work - 20,000 Years of Textiles: Women, Cloth and Society in Early Times, Norton, New York, 1994

Maxwell, R, Textiles of Southeast Asia: Tradition, Trade and Transformation, Australian National Gallery/OUP, 1990

Harris, J, 5000 Years of Textiles, British Museum Press, London, 1993