The City:
Paris
“In Paris, then, the ancient bastion of philosophy … and the modern capital of the modern world.”
– Marx to Ruge, September 1843.
HUM 285
Spring 2016
Instructors: Professors Stuart Smithers and Nadya Zimmerman
Meeting Times: Monday/Wednesday 9:30-11:20 AM
TCC Course Description
(Formerly HUMAN-285) An in-depth study covering history, philosophy, religion, art, architecture and literature of a culturally significant city. A different city, time, and place will be studied each quarter Humanities 285 is offered.
The City: Paris is a critical study of how the development of ideas, cultural production, and revolutionary action have informed and been informed by the shape of the city of Paris as an embodiment of public life and values since the 18th century. This course will introduce and focus on the birth of modernity, modernization, and postmodernism, particularly in relation to historical and cultural contexts in Paris. Looking at socio-political, economic, and cultural case studies in Paris’s history will serve as the lenses through which an examination of our shifting interpretations of class, culture and capital can be expanded. In particular, this course will consider attitudes toward and constructions of community as it has materialized in ideological and physical relationship to Parisian history.
TCC Program Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the degree, the student will be able to:
1. Core of Knowledge (COK)
Demonstrate a basic knowledge of each of the distribution areas (Written
Communication, Humanities, Quantitative Skills, Natural Sciences and Social
Sciences; or, as applicable, specific professional/technical programs), integrate knowledge across disciplines, and apply this knowledge to academic, occupational, civic and personal endeavors.
2. Communication (COM)
Listen, speak, read, and write effectively and use nonverbal and technological means to make connections between self and others.
3. Critical Thinking and Problem Solving (CRT)
Compare, analyze, and evaluate information and ideas, and use sound thinking skills to solve problems.
4. Information and Information Technology (IIT)
Locate, evaluate, retrieve, and ethically use relevant and current information of appropriate authority for both academic and personal applications.
5. Living and Working Cooperatively / Respecting Differences (LWC)
Respectfully acknowledge diverse points of view, and draw upon the knowledge and experience of others to collaborate in a multicultural and complex world.
6. Responsibility & Ethics (RES)
Demonstrate and understanding of what constitutes responsible and ethical behavior toward individuals, the community, and the environment.
TCC Detailed Course Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the interrelationship between humanities – the connections between art and history; between politics, government and religion; and between the diversity of the population and the general society and culture of the city being studied. (COM, CRT, RSP)
2. Demonstrate understanding of the significant history of the times as it relates to the city being studied. (COM, CRT, RSP)
Prerequisites
ENGL 095 with a minimum grade C or equivalent.
Attendance Policy
Attendance is vitally important to your success in this course. Students are only allowed two unexcused absences per term before they will be dropped from the course. Absences will be excused for trailer visits, medical appointments and legal visits. If you know that you will miss a class, please speak to your teacher as far in advance as possible. You are responsible for turning in any homework and making up all of the work that you missed that day.
Accommodations for Learning Disabilities
If you have a learning disability and would like accommodations, please speak to your teachers within the first two weeks of the term. We will try to work with you to make necessary accommodations; however, we have limited resources.
Study Hall
Study halls are not mandatory but are highly encouraged. Tutors from the University of Puget Sound, UW and Evergreen will be available to help you with your work. At any time during the semester, your teacher can make study hall mandatory for the entire class or you, so it is important to make sure that you are available to attend at least one of the study hall times (Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon). If you haven’t already signed up for one, please contact Mary.
Drop/Add and Withdrawing from a course
The first two weeks of the term are drop/add. If you would like to drop or add any classes during this time, please contact Mary Weir and tell your teacher. You will not be penalized for dropping a course, and it will not show up on your transcript. Likewise, if you would like to be added to a class, you can do so during drop/add, providing there is space.
The last day to withdraw from a course is the 55th day of the term. Please see the FEPPS student handbook for more information about drop/add, withdrawing from a course and grades.
Academic Dishonesty
Violations of academic integrity are a serious matter because they threaten the atmosphere of trust, fairness, and respect essential to learning and the dissemination of knowledge. Academic dishonesty includes plagiarism, misrepresenting one’s own work, unauthorized collaboration with other students, cheating on examinations, violation of honesty in research and forgery, falsification or misappropriation of information or documents. For more information, please see the FEPPS student handbook. Anyone who is found to be academically dishonest will lose their place in the FEPPS program.
Grade Disputes
If you are not pleased with any of your grades in this course, please talk to your teacher right away. Do not wait until the end of the term.
Course Materials
· Course reader and texts
· Composition book or loose leaf paper
· Pen or pencil
· Folder
Grading Policy
Essay 1: 15%
Essay 2: 15%
Essay 3: 15%
Essay 4: 15%
Midterm Exam: 10%
Final Exam: 15%
Participation: 15%
Essays
You will write four essays in this class of approximately 1,000 words each. Since each essay is designed to hone different skills, you will receive a detailed prompt for each one separately as we progress through the term. The prompts will explain what each essay requires you to do and how we will grade it. We will do a significant amount of work on writing skills in this course; many class meetings will involve writing-related activities in addition to discussions about the readings assigned for that day.
Exams
This portion of your grade will be based on two exams: a midterm held during week seven and a final held at the end of the term. We will spend time reviewing before each exam to give you a sense of what to expect.
Participation
What does it mean to participate? Participation is intellectual work that makes a significant contribution to the life of a classroom. It is a process of working through critical concepts and problems and being able to articulate a response among a group of peers who are engaging with the same material. We expect you to come on time, to have all required course materials with you, to have completed the assigned work, and to participate actively and respectfully in class discussions and activities. Our goal is to create a learning community in which everyone participates. So if you are shy, challenge yourself to speak up a couple of times a week; if you tend to talk quite a bit, consider holding back when you have already contributed substantially. We will call on people.
Late Work
Late work will be accepted only on the class day one week after the original due date; it will incur a 10% penalty. After that, no late work is accepted. We know that legitimate obstacles to completing work can happen; if an emergency situation arises, communicate with us and we may be able to make alternative arrangements.
Course Concerns
If you have questions or concerns about this class or your instructors, please talk to us or contact Mary Weir.
Course Calendar/ Schedule
The readings listed for each class meeting are due that day. All readings may be found in the course reader or assigned texts. Remember that this calendar is subject to change. Pay attention in class and make a note here if we say there will be a change to the schedule.
Introduction: Enlightenment Thought, Jacobins, and the French Revolution
Week One
1/18 Introductions, Syllabus
1/20 Marx, “Ruthless Criticism of Everything” (letter to Ruge, 1943)
Kant, “What is Enlightenment?”
Paris and the 1848 Revolts
Week Two
1/25 Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
David Harvey, “The Myths of Modernity” in Paris, Capital of Modernity
1/27 David Harvey, “Dreaming the Body Politic” (PCM)
Haussmannization, Retail Revolution, and Spectacle (of Empire)
Week Three
2/1 Bethany Hetrick, “Mannequins, Mass-Consumption and modernity in Au Bonheur des Dames: The Department Store as Ladies' Paradise?”
2/3 Harvey, “Prologue,” “The Organization of Space Relations,” and “The State” (PCM)
Harvey, “Consumerism, Spectacle, and Leisure” (PCM)
The Modern: Baudelaire’s Paris
Week Four
2/8 Baudelaire, “The Painter of Modern Life”
Baudelaire, “On the Heroism of Modern Life” (Salon de 1846)
Baudelaire, “Loss of a Halo”
2/10 Benjamin, “The Paris of the Second Empire in Baudelaire”
Rimbaud’s Paris and the Commune
Week Five: Close reading paper due
2/15 Rimbaud, Illuminations: “Metropolitans” and selected poems
Ross, “The Swarm” in The Emergence of Social Space: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune
Marx, The Civil War in France
2/17 Ross, Communal Luxury
Blanqui, “Eternity by the Stars”
Paris – City of Light (and Electricity, Speed, and Steel)
Week Six
2/22 Lafargue, “The Right to be Lazy” (and introduction by Marszalek)
Simmel, “Metropolis and Mental Life”
2/24 Guillaume Apollinaire, The Cubist Painters (1913)
Apollonaire, Alcools (1913)
Apollonaire, “Eiffel Tower Calligramme” (1918)
Benjamin’s Baudelaire
Week Seven: “What is modern?” paper due
2/29 Benjamin, “Paris, the Capital of the Nineteenth Century”
Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal
3/2 Benjamin, “On Some Motifs in Baudelaire”
Le Corbusier, Paris and the Birth of Modern Architecture and Urbanism
Week Eight
3/7 Le Corbusier, Toward an Architecture
3/9 Midterm Exam
(Spring Break)
Dada, Surreal and Pataphysical Paris
Week Nine
3/21 Entr'acte, directed by Rene Clair, music by Erik Satie (1924)
Le Retour à la Raison (“Return to Reason”), directed by Man Ray (1923)
Dreams That Money Can Buy, by Hans Richter, Man Ray, Marcel Duchamp, Alexander Calder, and Fernand Léger (1947)
Breton, “Manifesto of Surrealism” (1924)
3/23 Thomas Vosteen, “Introduction” in You’ve Always Been Wrong
Daumal, “Spritual Death” and “So! You Want to Think Freely!” in You’ve Always Been Wrong
Daumal, “The Holy War”
Home away from Home: American Expatriates in Paris
Week Ten: Limited lens paper due
3/28 Gertrude Stein, Paris France (1940)
3/30 Ernst Hemingway, A Moveable Feast (1964)
Postmodern Paris (a prehistory)
Week Eleven
4/4 Kristin Ross, Fast Cars, Clean Bodies
4/6 Ross, Fast Cars
May 1968
Week Twelve
4/11 Ross, May ’68 and Its Afterlives
Khayati, “On the Poverty of Student Life”
“Regular Lovers,” directed by Philip Garrel (2005)
“Dreamers,” directed by Bernardo Bertolucci (2003)
4/13 Debord, Society of the Spectacle
Agamben, “Marginal Notes on the Society of the Spectacle”
Paris’s Banlieues and the Slow Riot of Culture
Week Thirteen: Creative paper due
4/18 Badiou, The Rebirth of History: Tmes of Riots and Uprisings (“Historical Riots” and “Riots and the West”)
4/20 The Invisible Committee, “The Coming Insurrection”
The Imaginary Party (Tiqqun), “And the war has only just begun” (“Et la guerre est à peinecommencee”, 2001)
Charlie Hebdoe – Paris: Capital of the Global Civil War (slow riot)
Week Fourteen
4/25 Smithers, “Logic of the Martyr”
Peter Wieben, “Inside the Migrant “Jungle” in France” in New Republic
4/27 Review for Final
Paris Now
Week Fifteen
5/2 Final Exam
5/4 Foucault, “What is Enlightenment?” TBD