Syllabus History of France through Parisian Footprints: Antiquity to the Enlightenment

Professor: Azélina Jaboulet-Vercherre Session: June Language of instruction: English Number of hours of class: 24 Credits: 2 ECTS

Objective of the Course

This course aims to introduce students to French history from the founding of to the Enlightenment. Upon completion of this course, they shall be able to: 1. Identify elements of French history and culture when analyzing the city of Paris. 2. Situate monuments in their proper historical and cultural context. 3. Discuss both the aesthetic and intellectual aspects of Parisian monuments.

Summary

Paris is, as we know, the “City of Lights.” In this class, students will discover how Paris has experienced moments of both darkness and light throughout the centuries. Rather than treating history as a series of battles, this course will investigate the roots of France’s reputation as a nation of culture and elegance. For four weeks, students will travel back in time from to the capital on the eve of the . This chronological perspective will provide a framework for focusing on literary and artistic accomplishments. This course will be made up of theoretical, in-class sessions (2/3 of sessions) and excursions in Paris and its outskirts (1/3 of sessions).

Organization of the Course

 Theme 1: From Lutetia to France: The emergence of the French nation o General introduction – 2 hours o Roman times, the Carolingian empire, Feudalism (part 1) – 2 hours o Visit: Musée National du Moyen Âge - ; Notre-Dame Museum of Archaeology – 2.5 hours

 Theme 2: 1000-1500 o The Year 1000: Mythology, fears and monastic expansion; Feudalism (part 2); The 12th Century Renaissance: An intellectual construct? – 2.5 hours o 1200-1500: Did Aristotelianism shape French culture? - 2 hours o Visit: Sainte-Chapelle, Sorbonne neighbourhood – 2.5 hours

 Theme 3: Towards the Modern Era, 16th-17th centuries o France in a “new world” - 2 hours o Rabelais: a Renaissance polymath, the father of Humanism?– 2 hours o Visit: Musée du / – 3 hours

Sciences Po - 27 rue Saint-Guillaume 75007 Paris France T/ +33 (0)1 45 49 50 50 | http://www.sciencespo.fr/summer

 Theme 4 : Enlightenment Paris o Parisian café culture vs. the emergence of champagne – 2 hours o Visit: the 6th arrondissement – 2 hours

Bibliography

Required readings:  Theme 1: o Julius Caesar's War Commentaries, De bello gallico (Gallic Wars): Book 7 (http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/txt/ah/Caesar/CaesarGal07.html, esp. 7, 57-58). o Bryan Ward-Perkins, The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, Oxford, 2005 (selected passages).  Theme 2: o Colette Beaune, The Birth of an Ideology: Myths and Symbols of Nation in Late-Medieval France, University of California Press, 1991 (selected chapters). o The letters of Abelard and Heloise. London; New York: Penguin, 2003, “The Personal Letters,” p. 47-212.  Theme 3: o Rabelais, F. Gargantua and Pantagruel. Champaign, Ill. Project Gutenberg; Boulder, Colo.: NetLibrary.: http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=1200 o Erasmus : selected excerpts  Theme 4: o Thomas Brennan, “Social Drinking in Old Regime Paris,” in Drinking Behavior and Belief in Modern History, ed. Susanna Barrows and Robin Room. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991, p. 61-86. o Kolleen Guy. When Champagne Became French: Wine and the Making of a National Identity. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2003 (selected passages).

Optional readings:  Jannic Durand, Le Louvre, les objets d'art, Paris : Éd. Scala, 1995.  Camillo Sitte: City Building According To Artistic Principles, 1889.

Requirements for course validation

 Participation in class (20%)  Presentation (30%)  Final exam (50%) : commentary (image or text)

Professor Biography

Dr. Azélina Jaboulet-Vercherre holds a Ph. D. in History (Yale University, 2011). She published an anthology of pre-modern wine writers (2012); a book on the medieval medical perceptions of wine drinking (2014) for which she received awards from the International Organization of Wine and the Vine in 2013 and 2015, as well as a Gourmand award in 2013; and a book on a historical approach to wine tasting (2016). She also holds a Bachelor’s in Art History (Ecole du Louvre), a Bachelor’s in Archeology (Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne), a Master’s in Museum Studies (Ecole du Louvre) and a Master’s in American Literature.

d American Literature (Paris III, Sorbonne nouvelle).

Sciences Po - 27 rue Saint -Guillaume 75007 Paris France T/ +33 (0)1 45 49 50 50 | http://www.sciencespo.fr/summer