HUM 315 - Paris and the Modern Experience

Modernism is more than a movement; in fact, it is many movements and many experiments which constitute a true cultural revolution, a profound upheaval of beliefs that calls into question entire civilizations and cultures. In Paris, Modernism was a response to cultural crisis as the 19th century came to a close after 2 traumatic events: the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871), and the Paris Commune wherein Frenchmen were fighting against Frenchmen. Using the city itself as a text (including its neighborhoods, buildings, people, smells, and foods), this course will focus on the evolution of Parisian history and culture and examine the trajectories of the city’s social, intellectual, economic, political and spiritual systems from the Belle Époque, to the postcolonial movement, up to the violent protests in the northern suburbs of Paris in 2005 and the attacks of November 2015 to explain how complicated social structures and hierarchies have affected French society. Letter grade. Fee: TBD. (Offered interterm.) 4 credits