An interdisciplinary exploration of Paris at the turn-of-the-century and its reflection in and of our own turn-of-the-century cultural scene. The myth of France’s “La Belle Époque”often portrays Paris in terms of Baz Luhrman’s film, Moulin Rouge and/or of Toulouse-Lautrec’s posters:  the capital of a pleasure-seeking-and-driven consumer society. By examining the avant-garde and the modernist art of the period, the course will investigate the role of art and of the artist in society: are they part of the problem or part of the solution? In what ways do they oppose their social context and in what ways are they accomplices to it?  The course also aims to be the occasion for an appreciative look at the immense and profound artistic creativity that distinguishes the time and place of this belle époque.

Sample Texts:
Colette’s Chéri and The Last of Chéri; Jarry’s Ubu Roi; Shattuck’s The Banquet Years; Zola’s Nana; selected poems by Baudelaire, Rimbaud, and Apollinaire; Baz Luhrman’s film Moulin Rouge; a selection of music by Erik Satie, Offenbach, and from the opera Les Mamelles de Tirésias; selected works by Toulouse-Lautrec, Henri Rousseau, and other artists of the period.