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Paris to the World: Modelling the Modern City

Module description

The mythology of Paris as the urban template par excellence for Eurocentric modern urbanism was formed largely in the late 19th century by the urban interventions of Napoleon III and Baron Haussmann. This module unpacks the urban history that bolstered this mythology—even as it questions its hegemony Looking closely at the city’s maps, architecture, infrastructure, and urban development from roughly 1400 to 1900, you will also consider the interaction between people and the city as it was depicted in contemporary imagery and in literature.  Paris is reputed to have launched a global network of cities imitating its 19th century urban reforms or adhering to its 17th century colonial dictates

You will identify and interrogate the processes by which scholars have essentialized that which is ‘French’ or ‘Parisian’ in these extra-French urban or colonial centers in our efforts to understand their heterogeneous mix of vernacular, imperial, or emulative urban characteristics.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This course aims to explore the post-colonial model of centre and periphery through the idea of cities of empire as sites of imperial practice, as well as familiarizing students with the process of urban development on a broad scale in the 17^th- 19^th centuries.  It also aims to question the centrality of the myths of great cities within perceptions of western cultural development.  Students will be introduced to techniques and vocabulary for dealing with urbanization visually, including:  learning to read maps and their symbols (and parsing the attendant cartographic scholarship); examining cross-sections and plans of buildings and public spaces; analysing contemporary images to discern patterns of popular movement.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate a basic knowledge of the recent debates and key issues in the scholarship of art, architectural, and urban history and visual culture of 18th and 19th century Paris .
• 2. Demonstrate an understanding of the specific types of material culture of the early modern and modern periods in Paris and its global emulators.
• 3. Demonstrate an understanding of the ways in which social practices informed contemporary urban production and the experience of space.
• 4. Demonstrate familiarity with the history of various forms of cultural expression: literature, art and architecture, and urban design.
• 5. Identify patterns of unique urban design in France’s colonies and major global cities of the 19th century, along with resistance to or emulation of, particularly Parisian modes of urban design.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 6. Recognise and understand relevant art-historical, architectural, cartographic, and urban terminology and concepts.
• 7. Research independently and interpret information based on a range of primary and secondary sources.
• 8. Communicate ideas effectively in both oral and written forms.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 9. Assimilate, select and organise material in order to produce a written or oral argument.
• 10. Undertake structured learning activities with guidance from course tutor and with the help of written guidelines.
• 11. Explain and discuss personal conclusions with other members of the group.

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The urban development and visual culture of urbanism of/in Paris from 1650-1890
• The urban development and visual culture of French colonial cities, 1600-1850
• Urban development in Buenos Aires and Rio di Janeiro and its relationship to the Haussmanization of Paris , 1855-1900.

We will look at case studies—of aspects of urbanization, like walls, and of particular visual materials, such as maps--in seminar while the lectures will cover broader historical themes.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

The re-assessment consists of a 2500 word essay, as in the original assessment, but replaces participation in the group presentation with a written script that could be delivered in such a presentation and which is the equivalent of 15-20 minutes of speech (2000 words).  The script much contain AHVC standard referencing, a bibliography, and and a power point or appendix of images, as for individual presentation. 

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Armstrong, Carol. Odd man out: readings of the work and reputation of Edgar Degas. Los Angeles, Calif. Getty Research Institute, c2003
• Armstrong, Carol.  Manet Manette. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002.
• Callen, Anthea The work of art: Plein air painting and artistic identity in 19th-century France. London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2015.
• Clayson, Hollis. Painted love : prostitution in French art of the impressionist era.  New Haven : Yale University
• DeJean, Joan E.  How Paris became Paris: The Invention of the Modern City. New York: Bloomsbury, 2014.
• Dombrowski, André. “History, Memory, and Instantaneity in Edgar Degas’s Place de la Concorde,” The Art Bulletin 93, no. 2 (June 2011): 195- 219. ?
• Jones, Colin. Paris: Biography of a City, London, Penguin Books, 2004,
• Manet and the Execution of Maximilian: Painting, Politics, and Censorship, ed. Juliet Wilson-Bareau. London: National Gallery Publications, 1992. ?
• Nochlin, Linda, "Body Politics: Seurat's Poseuses," Art in America, March 1994.
• Nord, Philip.  Impressionists and Politics: Art and Democracy in the Nineteenth Century London: Routledge, 2000.
• Pinkney, David H.  Napoleon III and the Rebuilding of Paris. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1958.
• Ranum, Orest. Paris in the Age of Absolutism. University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University Press, c2002. See especially Chs.1, 5, 10
• Wright, Gwendolyn. The Politics of Design in French Colonial Urbanism. Chicago : University of Chicago Press, c1991.
• Young, Marnin. Realism in the Age of Impressionism

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE – https://vle.exeter.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=11119 

Key words search

Paris, urbanism, colonial cities