WS271 Seeing Paris through Literature

Tuesdays, September 27, October 4, 11, 18

Course Description: How do writers see Paris?  In this literature course we will read and discuss extracts from writers, novelists and poets from the sixteen hundreds to the twentieth century to see how they viewed Paris in their time. Sit in on the salon chatter of Madame de Sevigné and walk the streets of 1920s Paris with Hemingway to discover a whole world behind Paris's elegant facades and mystifying manners. A sure-to-please journey for lovers of history, books and gossip.

This is the first of three lecture series in the 2011-2012 season: 16th to early 18th century, covering the rarified world of the French aristocracy, the growing influence of women, art and artifice and the slow rise and influence of a new intellectual and mercantile class.  Delight in Moliere's comedies and revel in the lush worlds of romance novels and pastoral idylls.  You've seen the paintings in the Louvre, now discover what happened behind the scenes and what it was like to have lived in Paris back then.

Instructor: Gretel Furner, MA German and French literature, Oxford, PhD German Literature, U. of Saarbruecken; formerly a professor at George Washington University, Washington, D.C.