Description
Book SynopsisThis book considers the post-68 French city as a prism through which to understand the contemporary world and France’s specificity within it. The reader is invited to join in a series of exploratory strolls through texts, buildings, and neighborhoods, and thereby share in a process of discovery. Zeroing in on international architectural debates, a range of key Parisian exhibitions, and major urban design decisions in Paris, Montpellier, and Lille, Yaari unravels an often-acerbic French critique of both modern and postmodern positions on culture, technology, and the city. This critique—stemming from the competing claims of national identity, the ethics of architecture and display, and an anthropologically informed revision of prevailing views on the city—has sparked in France a passionate search for a third path, which the author proposes to term après-moderne. Breaking new ground in the field of French Studies through cultural analysis of the contemporary city, this study brings new insight to scholars and professionals in architecture and urbanism, and will interest all others for whom France and cities in general hold special appeal.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments List of Acronyms Introduction: A Project Unfolds Debates: Aesthetics, Society, Identity Modern/Postmodern Elsewhere, Perhaps, or the “après-moderne” Regional Capitals: The North-South Axis Montpellier Lille The National Capital: Center and Periphery, Looking Eastward Beaubourg Display Wars Belleville Mending the Margins, Mixing the Cultures The Urban Park of La Villette Conclusion: The City and the French après-moderne Notes List of Figures and Credits Works Cited Index-Personal Names
