Module Directory

Between the French Revolution and the Second World War, Paris emerged as the most influential progenitor of modern cultural ideas in the West.  This module provides an introduction to the material culture of nineteenth-century Paris which, in the words of the German cultural critic Walter Benjamin, was simply THE capital of the nineteenth century. 

We will explore the construction of Paris as the quintessentially modern city, the material realities as well as the representations and rich mythologies that prevail. We will roam the streets, salons and cafés and encounter the people who lived there.  We will consider the invention of the flâneur, discuss whether the flâneuse also roamed the boulevards, and examine the practices of the avant-garde.  We will explore the massive urban transformations that took place and new building types that emerged, while carefully considering the ways in which the physical reconfiguration of Paris was inextricably bound to its intellectual and artistic life. We will scrutinise paintings, sculptures and buildings, as well as popular prints and the brand-new medium of photography. Throughout the module, we will ask what made Paris modern and revolutionary and how successful have the myriad attempts been to picture and write the legendary capital of modernity.  In short, the module will seek to examine how Paris became the cultural hub of the West in the nineteenth century. 

The aims of the module are:

• To provide students with a grounding in urban material culture.


• To elucidate the role of art and architecture in the formation of urban identity.


• To develop skills of visual and conceptual analysis for concepts of considerable critical difficulty.


• To encourage debate about the place of art and architecture in society.


• To encourage an interdisciplinary approach to the study of art history.

By the end of this module the students will be expected to be able to:

1. Understand a historical period in the life of a city.


2. Interpret works and texts based on sound knowledge of the appropriate historical and interpretative contexts.


3. Confidently subject the texts studied to critical analysis.


4. Demonstrate good bibliographical and basic research skills.


5. Communicate complex ideas concerning urban history, concepts of urban development, art and architecture.

This module will be delivered via:

• One 2-hour combined lecture and seminar per week.

There will also be Reading Week when no teaching will take place, exact week to be confirmed.