Description
Book SynopsisFrom the late 19th century onwards Paris had been a congenial locus for bohemian life. By 1920 Montparnasse had superseded Montmartre as the intellectual and artistic heart of the city, inaugurating a decade of unequalled creative achievement and innovative self-performance. These were the years of the ‘Roaring Twenties’ or années folles. “Paris” – as Gertrude Stein famously remarked – “was where the twentieth century was”. The Rive Gauche offered a carnivalesque atmosphere of liberality, where the manifold experiments of the avant-garde could breathe freely. This volume attempts to do justice to the polyphony of voices and points up the synergies that existed between the creative activities of writers, painters, publishers, photographers and film-makers. The contributors adopt interdisciplinary approaches, casting new light on the rich and diverse artistic world of Paris in the twenties as presented in lesser known works by French artists, English and American expatriates, but also Belgian, Dutch, German, Polish or South American avant-gardists. The collection thus gives the reader a fascinating insight into artistic productions which have hitherto received comparatively little critical attention.
Table of ContentsElke Mettinger, Margarete Rubik and Jörg Türschmann: Introduction Dieter Fuchs: Judgements of Paris and Falling Troy – The French Metropolis as a Site of Cultural Archaeology in James Joyce’s Ulysses and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Babylon Revisited” Elke Mettinger: Midwives to Modernism: Three Women’s Contributions to the Making of the Avant-Garde Margarete Rubik: Jean Rhys’s Vision of the Left Bank Eva Müller-Zettelmann and Rudolf Weiss: “La vie toute faite des morceaux”: Intermediality and Impressionism in Jean Rhys’s Quartet Elke Frietsch: The Surrealist Artist is Strolling around with the Little Puppy-Dog Sigmund Freud at his Heels: Perceptions of Space, the Subconscious and Gender Codifications in 1920s Paris Petra Löffler: Picturing the Metropolis: Paris in the Eye of the Camera Birgit Wagner: Topography of a City of Differences: René Crevel’s La Mort difficile (1926) Sylvia Schreiber: The Pull of the Metropolis: The Années folles from a Belgian Perspective, or the Paris of Maigret Manuel Chemineau: “Black Paris” in the 1920s and René Maran’s Novel Batouala Friedrich Frosch: Americans in Paris: Huidobro. Girondo. Tarsiwald. Vallejo Martina Stemberger: The Plague in Paris or Burning Cities: Bruno Jasieński versus Paul Morand Jörg Türschmann: Claire Goll: Eine Deutsche in Paris (Une Allemande à Paris) Herbert Van Uffelen: Studies in buitenkant – Studies in Surroundings: Edgar Du Perron and the Modernists Bettina Thurner: “It is evil; it is beautiful; it is fascinating; it is bewildering”: Thomas Wolfe’s Paris of the 1920s Astrid M. Fellner: “At Last Lost in Paris”: A Canadian View on the Avant-Garde Paris of the 1920s
