Topics in Comparative Literature

Cultural icons, Paris and New York exert a powerful hold on our imagination. We will explore how the French and Americans define themselves, and each other, through their premiere cities. The themes of integration and isolation, class and race, innovation and tradition, commemoration and celebration will ground our discussions of Baudelaire (PROSE POEMS), Zola (THÉRÈSE RAQUIN), Wharton (THE AGE OF INNOCENCE), Proust (SWANN'S WAY), Truong (THE BOOK OF SALT), and Gopnik (PARIS TO THE MOON); painters Pissarro, Vuillard, and Caillebotte; photographers Brassaï, Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Ronis, Abbott, Hine, and Stieglitz; and filmmakers Godard (BREATHLESS), Allen (MANHATTAN, MIDNIGHT IN PARIS); Jeunet (AMÉLIE POULAIN), and Kassovitz (HATE). Through our study of public spaces developed by France's kings along with modern monuments (the Place des Vosges, 19th-century renovations by Haussmann, the Eiffel Tower and the 1889 World's Fair, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Twin Towers), we will consider how each city functions as a site of memory even as it fashions the future. Course taught in English.

Course Attributes: EN H; BU IS; AS HUM; AS LCD; AS SD I; FA HUM; AR HUM; BU Hum

Topics in Comparative Literature

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 385

Section 01