1:15 pm Gleacher Center Gulru Gozacan gg799@yahoo.com Course

University of Chicago Graham School
Paris: The Capital of Modernity
Winter 2013
Wednesdays, 10 am – 1:15 pm
Gleacher Center
Gulru Gozacan
gg799@yahoo.com
Course Description:
The urban boulevards and parks of 19th century Paris envisioned by Baron Haussmann
have come to represent modernity. Layered with multiple historical and artistic meanings,
they are depicted in all their variety in the writings of Baudelaire, Balzac, and Émile
Zola. We will get to know the 19 th century strollers of the city such as the flâneur, the
dandy, the melancholic, the prostitute, and the bourgeois; we will also examine the newly
built boulevards, arcades, sewage systems and public houses of Paris. Literary readings
will be complemented by visual illustrations of the cityscape by Eugène Delacroix, Félix
Nadar, and others.
Reading Material:
1. Balzac, Honoré de. Old Goriot. Trans. Marion Ayton Crawford. NY: Penguin,
1951. ISBN: 9780140440171.
2. Balzac, Honoré de. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. NY: CreateSpace, 2012.
ISBN: 9781478229681. (If this edition is not available, purchase instead Tredition
Editions, 2011. ISBN: 9783842440517).
3. Baudelaire, Charles. The Flowers of Evil and Paris Spleen. Trans. William H.
Crosby. Rochester: Boa Editions, 1991. ISBN: 9780918526878.
4. Baudelaire, Charles. The Painter of Modern Life and Other Essays. Trans.
Jonathan Mayne. NY: Phaidon Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780714833651.
5. Benjamin, Walter. The Arcades Project. Ed. Rolf Tiedemann. Trans. Howard
Eiland and Kevin McLaughlin. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2002. ISBN:
9780640008021.
6. Benjamin, Walter. The Writer of Modern Life: Essays on Charles Baudelaire. Ed.
Michael W. Jennings. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,
2006. ISBN: 9780674022874.
7. Clark, T. J. The Painting of Modern Life: Paris in the Art of Manet and His
Followers. Princeton: UP, 1999. ISBN: 9780691009032.
8. Zola, Émile. The Belly of Paris. Trans. Brian Nelson. Oxford: UP, 2009. ISBN:
9780199555840.
Suggested optional reading that is available only in Kindle Edition:
Sue, Eugène. Mysteries of Paris, Vol. 1.
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Schedule:
January 9, Week 1:
From The Flowers of Evil read: "Parisian Scenes" (all the poems gathered under this
title); from the section "Spleen and the Ideal" read only "Correspondences"; from
"Flowers of Evil" read only "Allegory"; from "Additional Poems in the Third Edition"
read only "Meditation"; from "Paris Spleen" read "Each His Own Chimera" and
"Crowds".
From Benjamin’s The Writer of Modern Life read: "Introduction"; "Baudelaire"; "On
Some Motifs in Baudelaire".
Poe, Edgar Allan. "The Man of the Crowd". http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccernew2?id=PoeCrow.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&t
ag=public&part=1&division=div1
January 16, Week 2:
From Benjamin’s The Writer of Modern Life read: “Paris, the Capital of Nineteenth
Century”; “The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire”.
From The Arcades Project read: “The Flâneur” pp. 416-455.
From Baudelaire’s The Painter of Modern Life read: “The Painter of Modern Life”.
Optional reading: E. T. A. Hoffmann, “My Cousin’s Corner Window”.
January 23, Week 3:
From The Arcades Project read: “Baudelaire” pp.328-339; pp.346-352 and section J69a,
1; p. 370 section J81, 6; “Fashion” pp.62-82.
From Flowers of Evil: “The Clock” p.151.
From Clark’s The Painting of Modern Life read: “The View from Notre-Dame”.
January 30, Week 4:
Old Goriot pp.5-150.
From The Arcades Project read: “Boredom” pp.101-119.
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February 6, Week 5:
Old Goriot, finish reading.
February 13, Week 6:
Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life, read first half of the book.
From The Arcades Project read: “Prostitution” pp.489-513.
February 20, Week 7:
Scenes From a Courtesan’s Life, finish reading.
From Clark’s The Painting of Modern Life read: “Olympia’s Choice”.
February 27, Week 8:
The Belly of Paris pp.1- 150.
From The Arcades Project read: “Arcades” pp.871-885 and pp.31-61.
March 6, Week 9:
The Belly of Paris, finish reading.
From The Arcades Project read: “Iron Construction” pp.151-169.
March 13, Week 10:
From Clark’s The Painting of Modern Life read: “The Environs of Paris: A Bar at the
Folies-Bergère”.
From The Arcades Project read: “ Haussmann” pp. 120-149; “Ancient Paris, Catacombs”
pp.82-100.
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