Paris in Architecture, Literature, and Art

Paris in Architecture, Literature and Art is a student textbook and teacher manual in cultural studies that capitalizes on the little exposure liberal arts students have to architecture, and the widespread popularity of Paris across the curriculum. Designed for a college course in the humanities, the book is also suitable for a High School course or a study abroad program in Paris. It focuses on Paris, which throughout history has been the stage and experimental ground for artists and intellectuals from all over the world, making it the crucible of western thoughts and consummate material for an interdisciplinary study. The book presents an overview of Paris from the Middles Ages to present, each chapter focusing on an intellectual movement such as Gothic, classical, romantic, impressionist, cubist and modern. The interdisciplinary approach promotes critical thinking, inspiring students to identify and translate esthetic concepts from one discipline to another, and explore, for instance, what impressionist literature or cubist architecture might be. The teacher manual provides detailed commentaries of all documents presented in the student textbook, with analysis that will be engaging to a scholar, but also accessible to instructors without a background in architecture, literature or art. The wide variety of pedagogical features gives flexibility for instructors to fit their specific areas of interest, as well as those of the target audience. Among those, preamble activities and timelines introduce chapters’ main idea, observation questions build critical reading and analyzing skills, interactive activities foster cooperative learning, and projects lead to oral and short film presentations