Paris through 10 Objects and Places

Catalog description

This course will provide a tour of Paris through its material culture and cultural practices. Each week's topic will be a window into different aspects of the city. We will use 10 selected places and objects to explore the city's cosmopolitan present and its rich historical past. The weekly offerings will also have accompanying literary French texts and artistic examples to ground them in French cultural production. By the end of the course students will gain a layered understanding of Paris and its reputation as a capital of world style and culture. Examples will include exploring the Seine as a site of art, commerce and intellectual life but also for the history of various cultural settlements along the river on the Left and the Right banks of the city. The week on Food Culture will allow us to examine the cafe as a venue of leisure and intellectual debate and the "epiciers" and "boulangeries" as the anchors of neighborhood nutritive values and social life, while the week on Le Metro will immerse us in public advertising, murals, and sounds in Paris's famous underground transport system. These and other sites will provide animated sources for understanding the historical beauty, cultural complexity, and sheer resonance of Paris both for denizens and its many visitors.