FFS 280 - Decentering La Parisienne

Semester Offered: Fall
1 unit(s)

From Balzac’s novels to “Emily in Paris,” the figure of la Parisienne seems to embody beauty, style, class status, and “Frenchness.” The myth surrounding this archetype crystallized in the early 1800s and continues to reinforce a monolithic and enduring image of idealized femininity. Beyond the seemingly simple stereotype, however, this figure taps into key issues of identity formation. In this course we explore questions of gender, class, racial, and national identities as they were and are refracted through the lens of the myth of the Parisienne. We study literary, cultural, and journalistic documents, alongside visual materials and ephemera, drawing the contours of this potent cultural myth as it was emerging and considering its contemporary articulations. Indeed, the Parisienne is now the subject of several important cultural critiques, including a recent documentary by Rokhaya Diallo and fashion interventions by Adama Ndiaye, among others. This course also aims to reveal the ways in which, even in the 19th century, there were voices of dissent and cracks in the façade. Through analysis of texts and images from the 1800s to today, we explore how writers, activists, and artists challenge this mythology in the context of a multicultural French society. Susan Hiner.

Prerequisite(s): FFS 212 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS