Art 45: Picturing Paris
Spring 2004.
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 9:30 - 10:45 am.
Hanes Art Center 218
“Paris est le point vélique de la civilisation.” Victor Hugo in Paris-Guide
(“Paris is the focal point of civilization.”)
Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Gray Buck. Office: 207 Hanes Art Center, phone 962-0723; home phone 967-0461 (before 9:30 pm)
Email: egraybuck@mindspring.com or ebuck@email.unc.edu.
Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 11 - 12:30, and by appointment, in Hanes 207.
Course Description: This class will focus on representations of Paris from the time of Louis XVI to the present. It will consider how Paris was materially constructed as a city from its medieval roots to the recent massive renovations undertaken by former President Mitterrand in the 1980’s. The class will also consider the creation of Paris as a site of fantasy: as the city of love, the city of decadence, the city of light, the city of revolution and liberty, and the city of mass culture, of fashion and food. To that end, the class will study images (paintings, drawings and photographs), texts and articles (listed below), a novel (André Breton’s Nadja), and films. Our goal is a richer understanding of the city both as a place and an imaginary space invested with multiple and sometimes competing meanings.
Course Requirements:
1) 1 group project and presentations. This will be a project researched and developed by a group of no more than 4 students devoted to representations and images of a Parisian monument. Sign-up will take place in class on January 13th. This project is due in the last two weeks of class. It will be presented to the class and discussion will follow. The grade will be assigned based upon the quality of the site, the quality of the presentation and the discussion they generate. 30%
2) 2 short papers based upon the class assignments. Each student will choose a particular topic presented in class. Based upon some of the recommended readings and films, the student will write a short response to the material with the following questions in mind: how does the material describe a theme of Paris that we have discussed in class? How is Paris represented both as an concept and as a place? Do any of these readings or films offer a new angle on “picturing Paris”? 30%
3) Final exam. The 2-hour format will consist of several essays based upon the images, films and texts addressed in class. 30%
4) Attendance. 10%
Note: Late assignments will not be accepted. Absence from the exams will require an official excuse. More than three unexcused absences from class will result in a “0” without advance notice.
The syllabus, course schedule and any amendments can be found at the course web site: http://www.unc.edu/courses/2004spring/art/045/001/.
You may access all images required for this class at the digital library at diglib.unc.edu. You will need your onyen and your password.
Texts:
Shelley Rice, Parisian Views, (MIT Press, 1999), and André Breton, Nadja, (Grove Press, 1988). Both are available at the UNC Student Stores.
Other readings are available through elibrary or at the reserve desk at both the Sloane Art Library and the Undergraduate Library.
There are books on reserve at Sloane Art Library that complement this course. Some may be useful for your research projects.
The required videos/movies are also available at the Undergraduate library. Some can also be rented at Visart Video locally if you prefer to watch them at home.
For help with writing your papers, you may submit a draft to the professor no more than 10 days before the due date or make an appointment with the undergraduate writing center, at the Phillips annex. You can schedule appointments on-line. Try to remember that these appointments fill up quickly. They also provide on-line tutoring.
Class schedule:
January 8: Introduction: Imagining Paris
*Required reading: Maurice Agulhon, “Paris: A Traversal from East to West,” in Pierre Nora, ed., Realms of Memory, volume III (NY: Columbia University Press, 1998) pp. 523 - 554.
January 13: Notre Dame: in the heart of Paris.
*Required reading: Shelley Rice, “On Canals and Cathedrals” in Parisian Views.
Recommended Reading: Patrice Higonnet, “Mysterious Capital of Crime” in Paris: Capital of the World (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2002) pp. 75 - 94.
T.J. Clarke, “The View from Notre Dame, “ in The Painting of Modern Life (Princeton University Press, 1984) pp. 23 - 78.
Recommended viewing: The Hunchback of Notre Dame
January 15: Versailles: the city and the sovereign.
*Required reading: Shelley Rice, “Time Zones” on Parisian Views.
Recommended Reading: Édouard Pommier, “Versailles; the Image of the Sovereign,” in Pierre Nora, ed., Realms of Memory, volume III (NY: Columbia University Press, 1998) pp. 293 - 324.
January 20: Visit to Center for Teaching and Learning: 318 Wilson Library. Groups 1 and 2 (in the basement -- enter through the big steps and go downstairs.)
January 22: Visit to Center for Teaching and Learning: 318 Wilson Library. Groups 3 and 4 (in the basement -- enter through the big steps and go downstairs.)
January 27: The Louvre: Paris as the capital of art
*Required reading: Jean Pierre Babelon, “The Louvre: Royal Residence and Temple of the Arts,” in Pierre Nora, ed.,Realms of Memory, volume III (NY: Columbia University Press, 1998) pp. 253 - 294.
Recommended reading: Patrice Higonnet, “Capital of the Modern Self,’ in Paris: Capital of the World (Cambridge and London: Harvard University Press, 2002) pp. 18 - 45.
January 29: The Bastille. Paris and Revolution.
*Required Reading: Priscilla Ferguson, “Paris: Place and Space of Revolution,” in Paris as Revolution (Berkeley: Univ of California Press, 1994) pp 11 - 35.
February 3: cont.
February 5: The Place de la Concorde: renaming Paris.
*Required reading: Shelley Rice, “Parisian Views,” in Parisian Views.
Recommended Reading: David Garrioch, “The Patterns of Urban Life,” in The Making of Revolutionary Paris (Berkeley, Univ of California Press, 2002) pp 15 - 44.
February 10: The Seine: crossing over and under the city.
*Required reading: Christopher Prendergast, “Paris Underground,” In Paris and the Nineteenth Century (Oxford and Cambridge, Blackwell Press, 1992) pp. 102 - 125.
Recommended viewing: Luc Besson, Subway (1985) Ul Media resources 65 V1159.
February 12: The Opéra: the Boulevards and the Baron Haussmann.
*Required reading: Shelley Rice, “Still Points in a Turning World,” In Parisian Views.
*Robert Herbert, “Paris Transformed,” in Impressionism: Art, Leisure and Parisian Society (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988) pp. 1-32.
*Elizabeth K. Menon, “Images of Pleasure and Vice: Women of the Fringe,” in Gabriel Weisberg, ed., Montmartre and Making of Mass Culture (New Jersey and London: Rutgers University Press, 2001) pp. 37 - 71.
*Required viewing: Daniel Odier, Diva (1982) Ul media resources 65 DVD194.
February 17: continued.
*Required reading: see above
February 19: continued. First written assignment due.
*Required reading: see above.
February 24: cont.
*Required reading: see above.
February 26: The Pantheon: Rebuilding Paris under the Third Republic.
*Required reading: Shelley Rice, “Souvenirs,” in Parisian Views.
*Jennifer Shaw, “Imagining the Motherland, Puvis de Chavannes and the Fantasy of France,” Art Bulletin, vol 79, no 4, (Dec 1997), pp. 586 - 610.
*Mona Ozouf, “The Panthéon: the École Normale of the Dead,” in Pierre Nora, ed., Realms of Memory, volume III (NY: Columbia University press, 1998) pp. 325 - 348.
*Required viewing: Either Moulin Rouge directed by John Huston (1954) UL media resources 65 V2345; or Moulin Rouge directed by Baz Luhrmann (2001) Ul Media resources 65 DVD826.
March 2: cont.
*Required reading: see above.
March 4: cont.
*Required reading: see above.
March 9 and 11: Spring break
March 16: The Eiffel Tower. Monument to 1900.
*Required reading: Roland Barthes, “Eiffel Tower,” in Eiffel Tower.
*Henri Loyrette, “ The Eiffel Tower” in Pierre Nora, ed., Realms of Memory, volume III (NY: Columbia University Press, 1998) pp. 349 - 376.
*Required viewing: René Clair, Paris Qui Dort
Recommended reading: Tom Conley, “’Le Cinéaste de la vie moderne’: Paris as Map in Film, 1924-34,” in Michael Sheringham, ed.,Parisian Fields (London: Reaktion Books, 1996) pp. 71 - 84.
Recommended reading and viewing: “The Origins and Development of Stereoscopy” In Paris in 3D: From Stereoscopy to Virtual reality 1850 - 2000. pp. 43-79. In Sloane Art Library cage, on reserve.
March 18: cont.
*Required reading: see above
March 23: Montmarte and the spectacle.
*Required reading: T.A. Gronberg, “Villes lumières,” in Designs on Modernity: Exhibiting the City in 1920’s Paris.
*Jon Kear, “Vénus Noir, Joséphine Baker and the Parisian Music Hall, “ in Michael Sheringham, ed.,Parisian Fields (London: Reaktion Books, 1996) pp. 46 - 70.
*Required Viewing: Marc Allegret, ZouZou, (1934). UL Library, call number 65 V2426.
Recommended viewing: Marcel Carné, Les Enfants du Paradis (1945), UL Library, laser Disc 65-LD137.
Jean Renoir, French Cancan (1955) UL media resources 65 V2604.
March 25: continued.
Required reading: see above.
March 30: Surrealist Paris.
*Required reading: André Breton, Nadja.
*Required viewing: Jean-Luc Godard, Au Bout du Souffle (Breathless) (1960), UL Digital Video Disc 65-DVD 887.
Recommended Reading; Margaret Cohen, “The Ghosts of Paris, “ in Profane Illumination (Berkeley: Univ of California Press, 1993) pp. 77 - 119.
Recommended viewing: An American in Paris.
Louis Malle, Zazie dans le Métro (1962) Ul media resources 65 V3016.
April 1: Continued. Second written assignments due.
Required reading: see above.
April 6: The Arc de Triomphe. Vichy: the anti-Paris.
*Required viewing: The Eye of Vichy, documentary.
Recommended reading; Céline, part 4 of his first book, Journey to the End of the Night..
April 8: La Pyramide: President Mitterrand’s “Grands Projets” and contemporary Paris.
*Required reading: *Shelley Rice, “”Voyages without Steam or Sail” in Parisian Views.
*Required reading: Marc Augé, “Paris and the Ethnography of the Contemporary World,” in Michael Sheringham, ed.,Parisian Fields (London: Reaktion Books, 1996) pp. 175 - 179.
*Raymond Jonas, “Sacred Tourism and Secular Pilgrimage; Montmartre and the Basilica of the Sacré Coeur,” in Gabriel Weisberg, ed., in Montmartre and Making of Mass Culture (New Jersey and London: Rutgers University Press, 2001) pp. 94 - 119.
*Required viewing: Either Chacun cherche son Chat (When the Cat’s away), or
*Mathieu Kassovitz, L’Haine (Hate) (1995) Ul Media Resources 65-V5831, and
*Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Amélie (2001). UL Media Resources, 65-DVD925.
Recommended reading and viewing: Picture Paris: Getty Institute Project for photographing the modern city. On reserve at the Sloane Art Library.
April 13: Continued.
*Required reading: see above.
April 15: Continued.
*Required reading: see above.
April 20: Final web projects due.
Presentations and discussion. We will meet in the Undergraduate Library, room: 207.
April 22: Presentations and discussions. See above.
April 27: Final Exam: 8 am.