City as Modernity:Popular Culture, Mass Consumption, Urban Entertainment in Nineteenth-Century…

Catalog description

Modernity as a distinct kind of cultural experience was first articulated in the Paris of the 1850s. The seminar will explore the meaning of this concept by looking at the theories of Walter Benjamin, as well as historical examples of popular urban culture such as the mass circulation newspaper, the department store, the museum, the café concert and the early cinema. Enrollment limited to 20.