©2011 Julia Kostova All Rights Reserved SPECTACLES OF MODERNITY: ANXIETY AND CONTRADICTION AT THE INTERWAR PARIS FAIRS OF 1925, 1931 AND 1937 By JULIA KOSTOVA A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School-New Brunswick Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in French written under the direction of Derek Schilling and approved by _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ _______________________________________ New Brunswick, NJ May 2011 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Spectacles of Modernity: Anxiety and Contradiction at the Interwar Paris Fairs of 1925, 1931 and 1937 By Julia Kostova Dissertation Director: Derek Schilling My dissertation focuses on the three major international fairs held in Paris in the interwar period – the Art Deco Exposition of 1925, the Colonial Fair of 1931 and the International Exposition of 1937. Like all world’s fairs, these expositions responded to and imagined solutions to pressing economic, political, and cultural problems by offering elaborate ideological messages, shrouded in spectacle and entertainment, in an attempt to reassure fairgoers of the tenability of French values and the bright future. Yet, I argue that despite efforts to provide coherent and reassuring answers to visitors, the narratives the fairs produced were often conflicting and inconsistent. In fact, the narratives of modernity, progress and nationhood, created by the displays, architectural representations and debates surrounding the planning stages, often problematized the dominant, officially-sanctioned visions that the fairs relentlessly promoted. I explore precisely the inconsistencies between these conflicting visions because they shed light on the process by which the fairs configured national identity and formulated images of modernity. I contend that these internal conflicts are an indication of France’s deeply problematic relationship to the modernity traditionally extolled at the fairs, and that it emerged as a serious challenge to deeply engrained national self- perception. ii My dissertation is divided in two parts. In Part One, I trace the conceptual origins and history of the expositions tradition in France, dating back to the late 18th century, to which the interwar fairs are heirs. My aim there is to outline important questions and debates that continue to be defining at the interwar fairs. Part Two of my dissertation contains three chapters, each dedicated to the study of the fairs of 1925, 1931, and 1937. By situating each event within the broader historical, cultural and aesthetic context of their planning and duration, and by analyzing closely the representations of these fairs, I demonstrate how the fairs actively shaped notions of modernity and national identity, and read them as part of a broader self-presentational discourse. By pointing out the internal conflicts within these representations, I aim to show that France’s ambiguous relation to modernity in fact stems from and conceals a deep anxiety over loss of a cultural particularity, compromised at the same time by France’s desire and imperative to modernize. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Writing this dissertation has been a long and at times challenging process. A lot of people involved in my life made it less daunting. I am deeply indebted to my adviser Derek Schilling who patiently and thoughtfully read and critiqued numerous drafts of my work. His guidance helped me keep the intellectual excitement through the many revisions. I also wish to thank the members of my committee for their support and advice: Professors Renée Larrier, Fatima Naqvi and James Swenson. I am very grateful for the encouragement Professors Jerry Flieger, Mary Shaw, Lorraine Piroux and Alan Williams gave me over the years. The help and support from my colleagues and friends at the Writing Program, especially Peter Sorrell and Karen Kalteissen, are invaluable to me. I owe a debt of gratitude to my family – to my mom Natalia, who instilled in me the love of reading, my dad Valentin, and my grandmother Stela, and most of all to my sister Stela and brother Alek – for being proud of me. Of course, I want to express my appreciation to all my friends – Boriana, Vlado, Montserrat, Kai, Monica, Yulia, Ivo, Myriam, Boris – lucky for me, they are more than I can name. Finally, I dedicate this dissertation to my husband Alex for his unwavering support and endless love. iv DEDICATION To Alex v TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE i ABSTRACT iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS AND DEDICATION iv TABLE OF CONTENTS vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix INTRODUCTION 1 The World’s Fairs and Their Narratives of Modernity 6 Modernity and Nostalgia at the Expositions: The Fairs as Sites of Anxiety 11 Greater France, Modernity and the Colonial Exposition 14 Revisiting Frenchness: Between Tradition and Modernity 22 PART ONE: History, Conceptual Origins and Critical Themes in the Great Expositions 28 Spectacles of Nation Building 29 The Crystal Palace and French Notions of Progress at the 1855 and 1867 Expositions 35 Encyclopedism, Social Utopianism, Eclecticism: The 1867 and the 1878 Paris Expositions 47 The 1889 Universal Exposition: The 300-meter Tower, Fée Electricité and the Civilizing Mission 61 Welcoming the New Century or Celebrating the Old? The 1900 Exposition Universelle 74 vi PART TWO: The Interwar Fairs 83 CHAPTER ONE: The 1925 Art Deco Exposition: French Modernity as a Matter of Style 83 Genesis of the Exposition 84 The Search for a Modern Style 89 Luxury as Index of Modernity: Hôtel d’un riche collectionneur and Une Ambassade Française 100 Rue des Boutiques 115 Le Corbusier’s Esprit Nouveau Pavilion 129 Conclusion 145 CHAPTER TWO: Colonial Modern and the 1931 Colonial Exposition 147 The Invention of la Plus Grande France: The Exposition Narrative 151 Othering the Colonies 161 Constructed Authenticity: The Role of Architectural and Visual Representations in the Construction of the Image of Colonial Subjects 171 Scientific Colonial Policy and the Political Stakes of Ethnology 192 Alternative Modernities 206 Conclusion 218 CHAPTER THREE: The Last Universal Exposition and the Future of France: The 1937 Paris Exposition 220 A Visit to the Exposition: The Foreign Section 220 The New Trocadero 233 Neo-Classicism in Defense of Frenchness 243 Modernity and Nostalgia 254 vii Regionalism and Modern France 257 Regionalism at the Exposition: The Regional Center 261 Extreme Modernity: The American Pavilion and the Future of France 273 Conclusion 286 CONCLUSION: Spectacles of Anxiety 287 BIBLIOGRAPHY 299 CURRICULUM VITAE 327 viii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PART ONE I.1. The 1798 Exposition, Champs de Mars and the Temple of Industry 33 I.2. London’s Crystal Palace designed by Joseph Paxton, 1851 36 I.3. The Palais d’Industrie built for the 1855 Paris Exposition 42 I.4. Entrance to the Palais de l’Industrie, 1855 43 I.5. Plan of Champs de Mars, 1867 Paris Exposition 47 I.6. The Palais de l’Industrie conceived by Le Play 49 I.7. The Trocadero Palace, built on the occasion of the 1878 Exposition 58 I.8. Plan of the Champs de Mars, 1889 62 I.9 and I.10. The Galerie des Machines, exterior and interior, 1889 64 I.11 The Colonial Section at the 1889 Exposition 67 I.12. The Colonial Section at the 1889 Exposition 71 I.13. The Eiffel Tower’s rotating projector at the 1889 Exposition 71 I.14. An ‘authentic’ Senegalese village at the 1889 Exposition 72 I.15. A ‘civilized’ Gabonais at the 1889 Exposition 72 I.16. The Banquet des Maires, 1900 75 I.17. Cinéorama-ballon at the 1900 Exposition 77 I.18. Porte Monumentale at the 1900 Exposition 78 I.19. The Pavilion Bleu at the 1900 Exposition 79 PART TWO CHAPTER ONE 1.1 View of 1925 Exposition of the Decorative Arts, the Right Bank 83 1.2. Austrian pavilion designed by Josef Hoffman, the 1925 Exposition 99 ix 1.3. Melkinov’s Soviet pavilion, the 1925 Exposition 99 1.4. Hôtel d’un riche collectionneur, exterior by Pierre Patout, 1925 101 1.5 Dining Room, Hôtel d’un riche collectionneur, 1925 101 1.6 Bedroom, Hôtel d’un riche collectionneur, 1925 101 1.7 and 1.8 Grand Salon, Hôtel d’un riche collectionneur, 1925 102 1.9 Table araignée and a pearl-encrusted credenza designed by Jacques Emile Ruhlmann for the Hôtel d’un riche collectionneur, 1925 102 1.10 The Pavilion of Tourism, by Robert Mallet-Stevens, 1925 108 1.11 Concrete trees for the Jardin Cubiste, by Robert Mallet-Stevens, 1925 108 1.12. Photo and stamp of the Rue Mallet-Stevens 108 1.13 Grand Salon at the Ambassade Française designed by Pierre Selmersheim, 1925 110 1.14 Study (bibliothèque) at the Ambassade Française designed by Pierre Chareau, 1925 110 1.15 Caricature from L’Art Vivant (June 15, 1925) 111 1.16 and 1.17 Vestibule for the Ambassade française, 1925 112 1.18 Robert Delaunay’s and Fernand Léger’s murals for the Ambassade française, 1925 112 1.19 Robert Delaunay’s La Femme et la Tour 113 1.20 Léger’s Peinture Murale 113 1.21 Eléments mécaniques (1924) 113 1.22 Rue des boutiques on Pont Alexandre III, 1925 115 1.23 Paul Poiret’s barges Amours, Délices and Orgues 117 1.24 The Eiffel Tower seen through the Rue des boutiques, postcard, 1925 120 1.25 The Eiffel Tower illuminated with Citroën advertisement, 1925 120 x 1.26 An example of the decoration on the Rue des boutiques 122 1.27 Grand Palais updated for the 1925 Exposition 123 1.28 Shop window of Sonia Delaunay’s Boutique simultanée 125 1.29 Sonia Delaunay’s Prismes électriques (1914) 128 1.30 Sonia Delaunay’s