RLFR 214(S) Paris on Fire: Incendiary Voices from the City of Light (1830-2005)
During the 1830s, Balzac described Paris as a "surprising assemblage of
movements, machines, and ideas, a city of one hundred thousand novels, the
head of the world," but also characterized the French capital as a "land of
contrasts," a "monstrous wonder," a "moral sewer." Similarly, writers from
Hugo to Zola have simultaneously celebrated Parisian elegance and condemned
the appalling misery of Paris's urban poor. Since 1889, Paris has been fêted as
the "City of Light" for its Enlightenment legacy, its Eiffel Tower modernity, and
its luminous urban energy, captured in countless paintings, photographs, and
film. However, Paris is also the historical site of revolution, resistance, and riots.
From revolutionary revolt (1830, 1848, 1871), to wartime resistance (1870,
1914-18, 1940-44), to reformist and race riots (1968 and 2005), Paris has
repetitively sparked with incendiary passion and political protest. As fires raged
during the recent riots in 2005, many heard the echo of Hitler's ominous 1944
question, "Is Paris burning?" and asked: why was Paris burning again at the
dawn of the twenty-first century? To answer this question, we will examine the
social, political, and literary landscape of Paris during the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, from urbanization and modernization, to occupation and
liberation, to immigration and globalization. Readings to include poetry, short
stories, and novels by Hugo, Balzac, Baudelaire, Maupassant, Verne, Zola,
Apollinaire, Colette, Duras, Perec, Rochefort, and Charef. Films to include
works by Clair, Truffaut, Godard, Minnelli, Clément, Lelouch, Luhrmann,
Kassovitz, Besson, and Jeunet. Conducted in French.
Format: seminar. Requirements: active class participation, two short papers, an
oral presentation, and a final paper.
Prerequisites: French 109, 110, 111 or permission of instructor. Enrollment limit:
20 (expected: 20). If overenrolled, preference given to French and Comparative
Literature majors and those with compelling justification for admission.