RMST221

Paris

1887-1889: the Building of the Eiffel Tower | Learn more: https://www.unjourdeplusaparis.com/paris-reportage/1887-1889-construction-tour-eiffel-images

Of all the major cities in the world, Paris is one of those that has most inspired the imagination. Represented a thousand times in literature, paintings and films, Paris has been the subject of abundant discursive and graphic productions that have contributed to establishing it as a ‘modern myth.’ This mythical representation of Paris, constructed through newspapers, novels, poems, songs, paintings, photographs, and films that have taken it as their subject, continues to color the gaze, sometimes nostalgic, sometimes critical, that one casts upon the French capital. Behind the museum-city and the cliché depicted on postcards is a city that evolves at a pace that is not necessarily that of its representations.

This course aims to study and question the discursive and symbolic heritage of Paris as it has been built and transmitted since the 19th century. Through the study of literary works that have contributed to shaping and evolving the identity of the capital in the imagination, this course seeks to provide students with the tools to interrogate the role of social discourse in our relationship to an urban space whose reality is itself tinted by what has been written and continues to be written about it.

Language of instruction: English

Instructor: Dr. Joël Castonguay-Bélanger

Prerequisites: None