|
|
Paris:
City on the
Seine
EUH 3957 12398/ IDH 2935 12461 Spring 2006 Dale Clifford |
|
In this course we'll take an interdisciplinary look at the history of Paris concentrating on the period since Louis XIV. The first part of the term will focus on learning the city – its geography, its arts, literature, and culture, its social and political life. Each class session will also include a segment on Americans in Paris. Sometimes our focus will be on our own plans as Americans in Paris over the break, and for other class sessions student groups will be responsible for assigning readings and leading class discussion of Americans in Paris in the past.
In addition to reading, writing about, and discussing assigned materials, students will be responsible for two major projects in the course. For the trip to Paris, student groups will be assigned a particular district of the city. Their task will be to learn the district beforehand, and in Paris, to introduce the rest of us to the past and present of that area. The second project is a more traditional paper. Topics may tie the student's major or other interests to the Parisian focus of the course.
Goals: Students who successfully complete this course will have learned to interpret the history of Paris in cultural, social, economic, and political context. They will demonstrate knowledge of the past and contemporary city by leading class members on a tour of a specific section of the city, and will demonstrate their ability to research and write about the city in a variety of different ways. In short, students will be able to "read" and to live in Paris - then and there, here and now.
General Education:
The Honors
section of this course fulfills general education requirements for
honors students. Students who have completed the equivalent of
one of the Freshman Core courses should demonstrate substantial
achievements in the following areas:
Skills: Students should be able to analyze
arguments; assume
and defend a position on a given topic; form and support conclusions;
read and analyze complex texts; locate, retrieve, and evaluate
information; use appropriate software for developing written and
graphic materials; write coherent analytical and persuasive papers
using effective expression; speak with clarity and organization of
thought; address diverse audiences.
Knowledge: Students should demonstrate a general
knowledge of
the varieties of social, political, and economic organization; a
general understanding of human behavior; a knowledge of Western
politics and society, including the experience of significant minority
groups; a knowledge of formative influences in the recent past; a
general knowledge of the methods and traditions of analysis in the
humanities.
Values: Students should be able to respond
aesthetically to
artistic and literary works from several cultures in the past and
present; demonstrate an appreciation of the Other to allow an
understanding of individuals and groups who differ in significant ways
from the Self, such as differences generated by race, gender, class,
and culture; should have acquired knowledge and skills necessary for
ethical judgment and its application to everyday life, and developed
the habit of reflecting on their own values and fulfilling their
ethical and civic responsibilities.
The course also fulfils 3000 words of the Gordon Rule
intensive writing requirement and is designed both to provide an
introduction to critical thinking about the past for non-history
majors, and to serve as a foundational course for those students who
choose to major or minor in history.
Required Books:
Alistair Horne, The
Seven Ages of Paris (Vintage,
2002)
Adam Gopnik, Paris
to the Moon (Random House, 2000)
Harvey Levenstein, Seductive
Journey: American
Tourists in France from Jefferson to the Jazz Age (Chicago, 1998)
Alan Tillier,
Eyewitness Travel Guide to Paris
(revised 2005)
Other readings will be posted to our Blackboard site.
Other books you may find interesting and useful:
the novels of Balzac, Flaubert,
and Zola
Thad Carhart, The
Piano Shop on the Left Bank.
Random House
Janet Flanner, Paris
Was Yesterday: 1925-1939. Harvest Books
Andy Herbach and Michael Dillon, Eating and Drinking in Paris: a Menu
Reader and Restaurant Guide. Open Road, 2nd edition, 2004.
Patrice Higonnet, Paris:
Capital of the World. Belknap Press, 2005.
Colin Jones, Paris:
the Biography of a City. Viking, 2005.
David P. Jordan,
Transforming Paris: The Life and Labors of Baron Haussmann. University
of Chicago Press
Andrew Trout, City on the Seine: Paris in the Time
of Richelieu and Louis XIV. St. Martin’s Press, 1996
Jeremy Popkin, A
History of Modern France, Prentice-Hall
Paris in film:
Each student must choose a film in which Paris plays
a significant role, and must write a 3-5 page analytical review of the
film. Groups will make a class presentation on the group of films
viewed by group members. You will have a list of possible films,
and we will discuss the assignment before you begin. Film choices
must be approved in advance.
This class meets only once a week, for close to three hours. Each session will include discussion of assigned reading, some additional material (via short lecture or presentation, which might include film clips or occasionally a whole film, music, art), and a segment that deals with language and living in Paris. Because the classroom experience cannot be recreated, do not miss class except for grave illness.
11 January - Introduction to Paris, and to reading the city as
text. Readings from Mercier, Panorama of Paris for 25
January will be handed out.
18 January - From the Romans to Louis XIV: read Horne, Introduction,
and Age 2: Henri IV. Americans in Paris: read Gopnik, pp. 1-35.
25 January - From the Sun King to the Revolution. Read Horne, Age 3:
Louis XIV, and your group’s assignment from Mercier. Turn in a list of
three final paper topics, in priority order. We will schedule
individual appointments during the week to discuss the choice.
1 February - Napoleon: read Horne, Age 4. Americans in Paris:
read Levenstein, preface and chs. 1-2.
8 February - Barricades and Boulevards: read Horne, Age 5.
Americans in Paris: read Levenstein, chs. 3-9.
15 February - The Belle Epoque: read Horne, Age 6, ch. 1, and
Levenstein, chs. 10-14.
22 February - Paris in war and peace: 1914-1940: read Horne, Age 6, and
finish Levenstein.
1 March - Paris Occupied, Liberated ... and more Revolution: read
Horne, Age 7.
8-15 March - Paris as text (words and film). Come prepared
to discuss Adam Gopnik, Paris to the Moon, and to discuss Paris in film.
29 March - Contemporary Paris.
5 April - No class: Individual meetings with instructor; working on
papers and projects
12-19 April - Presentations to class