In this course, we will explore the relationship between Paris and its literary and cinematic representations in order to better understand the history of this representation and the history of the city itself. How do specific Parisian places manifest themselves in famous works? How can our engagement with these works help us get a sense of place in Paris today? We will answer these questions by reading the city through our works and our works through the city; as such, the course will include walking tours. Along the way, we will consider the dynamic encounters between the city and many figures or types: the artist, the student, the flâneur, the bohemian, the emigrant/immigrant, the woman, the elderly, the child, the worker, and the tourist. Our works will serve as cultural artifacts, giving us a glimpse as to how Paris fit into different and evolving cultural practices and ways of viewing the world.

COURSE MATERIALS

• Charles Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil (1857), excerpts
• Gustave Flaubert, Sentimental Education (1869)
• Raymond Queneau, Zazie and the metro (1959), excerpts

Films

• 1965 - short films Saint-Germain des Prés (Jean Douchet) and Montparnasse and Levallois (Jean-Luc Godard)
• 1996 - When the Cat's Away (Cédric Klapisch)
• 2006 - short films 'Tuileries' (Joel and Ethan Coen) and 'Far from the 16th arrondissement' (Walter Salles Jr. and Daniela Thomas)

Course reader

• occasional reading assignments from a course packet

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COURSE REQUIREMENTS

• 20% - Five weekly responses (due every week except for the last week of class) Each student will write a response (250-300 words) for either Tuesday or Thursday. This response is due at the beginning of class and may react to one of the texts, to class discussion, to one of the questions from your weekly discussion question list, or to the walking tour.
• 20% - Paper, due July 30; paper topic must be approved by July 24 The final paper (4-6 double-spaced 12-point-font pages) will be due at the end of Week 6 and will be on a subject that the student chooses in consultation with the professor. This topic is due by e-mail by July 24; failure to send it in time will result in the paper grade being lowered. The subject can fit the student’s own interests – literary, historical, political, artistic, architectural, etc.
• 20% - Class participation Students must attend every class session and participate actively in discussion. If you are naturally shy, I suggest you write comments in your notebook before class and be sure that you make them in class. Excessive lateness counts as an absence.
• 5% - Walking tour participation and mini-presentation All students must attend the three walking tours organized around the works we will be studying. Each student will either help lead one tour along with the professor or give a class presentation after the tour, speaking for at least 5 minutes in either case. Depending on the student’s own interests, she might talk about the history of a certain landmark or building, the artists and writers who frequented the neighborhood, its historical or present-day demographic, etc.
• 10% - Quizzes The course will include occasional unannounced quizzes concerning the basic narrative events of the works we’re studying and the most general points of your classmates’ mini-presentations
• 25% - Final examination

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COURSE SCHEDULE

All assignments must be completed for and by the day listed. The short films, ranging from 5 to 18 minutes, will be viewed during class.

WEEK 1

Wednesday 24 June
Paris: allegory, symbol, invention?

Thursday 25 June
Imaginaries

Excerpt from The Flowers of Evil and Walter Benjamin’s “The Flâneur” (course reader)
Sentimental Education, pp. 3-28

WEEK 2

Tuesday 30 June
Flâning through life?

Sentimental Education, pp. 29-110
Sign up to help guide a walking tour or give a presentation in class

Thursday 2 July
Friends and lovers: sentimental topographies

Sentimental Education, pp. 111-184

WEEK 3

Tuesday 7 July
Dueling

Sentimental Education, pp. 184-264
Wednesday afternoon – walking tour of the Latin Quarter

Thursday 9 July
Growing up?

Sentimental Education, pp. 265-309

WEEK 4

Wednesday 15 July 15
Revolutionary Paris

Thursday 16 July
Love triangles

Sentimental Education, pp. 369-438

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WEEK 5

Tuesday 21 July
The end of Frederic’s Parisian era
The beginning of twentieth-century Paris

Sentimental Education, pp. 439-464
Wednesday afternoon – walking tour of the Bastille neighborhood

Thursday 23 July
Sexy North American girls and the New Wave
Saint-Germain des Prés and Montparnasse and Levallois

Texts from course reader

Friday July 24 – deadline for submitting paper topic

WEEK 6

Tuesday 28 July
Subterranean Paris, Part I

Excerpts from Zazie and the metro (course reader)
Wednesday afternoon – screening of When the Cat’s Away

Thursday 30 July
The UC Center’s neighborhood and the clash of cultures

When the Cat’s Away (1996)
Texts from course reader

Final paper due

WEEK 7 (no response paper due)

Tuesday 4 August
Subterranean Paris, Part II

Course review and conclusions
Far from the 16th arrondissement and Tuileries

Thursday 6 August
Final examination

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