AR207-6-SP-CO:
Picturing the City I

The details
2024/25
Philosophical, Historical, and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Monday 13 January 2025
Friday 21 March 2025
15
11 April 2024

 

Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)

 

(none)

Key module for

(none)

Module description

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.

Module aims

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.

Module learning outcomes

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



  1. Substanitally understand a historical period in the life of a city.

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

  3. Confidently subject the texts studied to sophisticated and informed critical analysis.

  4. Demonstrate well-developed bibliographical and research skills.

  5. Demonstrate a mature ability to communicate complex ideas concerning urban history, concepts of urban development, art and architecture.


Skills for your Professional Life (Transferable Skills)


By the end of the module, students should also have acquired a set of transferable skills and, in particular, be able to:



  1.  Define the task in which they are engaged and exclude what is irrelevant.

  2. Seek and organise the most relevant discussions and sources of information.

  3. Process a large volume of diverse and sometimes conflicting arguments.

  4. Compare and evaluate different arguments and assess the limitations of their own position or procedure.

  5. Write, summarise, and present verbally a succinct and precise account of positions, arguments, and their presuppositions and implications.

Module information

No additional information available.

Learning and teaching methods

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.

Bibliography

  • Laugier, M.-A. (1977) An essay on architecture. Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls.
  • Olsen, D.J. (1986) The city as a work of art: London, Paris, Vienna. New Haven: Yale University Press.
  • Rice, S. (1997) Parisian views. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press.
  • Bareau, J.W., Musée d’Orsay, and National Gallery of Art (U.S.) (1998) Manet, Monet, and the Gare Saint-Lazare. Washington: National Gallery of Art.
  • Clayson, H. and Dombrowski, A. (eds) (2016) Is Paris still the capital of the nineteenth century?: essays on art and modernity, 1850-1900. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
  • Benjamin, W. and Tiedemann, R. (1999) The arcades project. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.
  • Miller, M.B. and EBSCOhost ebook collection (2014) The Bon Marche: Bourgeois Culture and the Department Store, 1869-1920. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=791480.
  • Clayson, H. (2002) Paris in despair: art and everyday life under siege (1870-71). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
  • Thomson, R. et al. (2006) Toulouse-Lautrec and Montmartre. Washington [D.C]: National Gallery of Art.
  • Heller, R. and de Toulouse-Lautrec, H. (1986) ‘Rediscovering Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s “At the Moulin Rouge”’, Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies, 12(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.2307/4115937.
  • Geppert, A.C.T. and EBSCOhost ebook collection (2010) Fleeting cities: imperial expositions in fin-de-siècle Europe. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Available at: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&scope=site&db=nlebk&db=nlabk&AN=356683.
  • Barthes, R. and Sontag, S. (1993) A Barthes reader. London: Vintage.
  • Walter Benjamin (1968) Paris, Capital of the 19th Century, New Left Review. Available at: https://newleftreview.org/I/48/walter-benjamin-paris-capital-of-the-19th-century.
  • Etchells, F. and Le Corbusier (1971) The city of tomorrow and its planning. 3rd ed. London: Architectural Press.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's reading list.

Assessment items, weightings and deadlines

Coursework / exam Description Deadline Coursework weighting
Coursework   Quizzes TOTAL    33.34% 
Coursework   2500-word Essay  21/04/2025  66.66% 
Exam  Main exam: In-Person, Open Book, 120 minutes during Summer (Main Period) 
Exam  Reassessment Main exam: In-Person, Open Book, 120 minutes during September (Reassessment Period) 

Exam format definitions

  • Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
  • In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
  • In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary, for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.

Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.

Overall assessment

Coursework Exam
60% 40%

Reassessment

Coursework Exam
60% 40%
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Natasha Ruiz-Gomez, email: natashar@essex.ac.uk.
Dr. Natasha Ruiz-Gomez
PHAIS General Office, Room 6.130, arugadmin@essex.ac.uk

 

Availability
Yes
Yes
Yes

External examiner

Dr Dominic Paterson
University of Glasgow
Senior Lecturer in History of Art / Curator of Contemporary Art
Resources
Available via Moodle
No lecture recording information available for this module.

 


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