(note: this syllabus is dynamic and evolving, depending somewhat upon the weather in Paris and how quickly we move through the work in Shreveport; check this site before dinner time each evening to see if any changes have occurred for the following day)
Jefferson Hendricks, Professor of English and Film Studies
Office: 307 Jackson Hall
Email: jhendric@centenary.edu
Cell: 318-820-1414
Anne-Marie Bruner-Tracey, Director of Intercultural Engagement
Office: Smith Building, Room 205
Email: abrunertracey@centenary.edu
Cell: 318-347-4267
"Bypassing rue Descartes
I descended toward the Seine, shy, a traveler,
A young barbarian just come to the capital of the world."
-- Czeslaw Milosz
"America is my country and Paris is my hometown."
-- Gertrude Stein
“If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris as a young [person], then wherever you go the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.”
-- Ernest Hemingway
Emily Fragos, ed. Poems of Paris. New York: Everyman's Library, 2019. [A few of the poems from this text can be found online here.]
Jefferson Hendricks, Dana Kress, and Sabrina Handal, eds. Bruce Allen's Paris: In Another Light. Shreveport: The Storyport Press @ Centenary College, 2019.
Monday, August 5:
9:00-11:45am
Introduction to Course; Introduction to Paris; Writing exercise: "What is Good Writing?"
Canvas:
Margaret Atwood, [you fit into me]
Sylvia Plath, "Metaphors"
Brian Flynn, "Catfishing in the Nighttime"
Online:
Jack London, "Credo"
1:15-3:30pm
Lecture and film: American Masters: Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea (film)
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Tuesday, August 6:
Reading assignment:
Canvas:
Ernest Hemingway, from A Moveable Feast: “A Good Café on the Place St.-Michel” (15); “People of the Seine” (35); “Miss Stein Instructs” (21); and “Scott Fitzgerald” (125)
Sherwood Anderson, "Paris Notebook 1921"
Online:
Richard Wright, "Richard Wright's Love Letter to Paris" [radio broadcast]
Beyoncé and Jay-Z, "Apes***t" [video]
Writing assignment:
draft of letter home from Shreveport/Centenary due by 10:00pm; turned in to Canvas, Files, "Aug 6 Letter Home Draft"
9:00-11:45am
Lecture/discussion on reading assignment; workshop: Elements of Good (Letter) Writing
1:15-3:30pm
Lecture and Film: Midnight in Paris
Other key terms/phrases/people/places:
liberal arts education; Paris; France; France-United States Relations; Louisiana (New France); "Try to be one on whom nothing is lost" (Henry James); "Show, don't tell"
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Wednesday, August 7:
Reading assignment:
Poems of Paris:
Gabriela Mistral, “Rodin’s Thinker” (183); Delmore Schwartz, “From Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon Along the Seine” (184); Robert Hayden, “Monet’s Waterlilies” (186); Rosanna Warren, “Renoir” (187)
Canvas:
James Baldwin, “The Discovery of What It Means to Be An American”
or
Online:
James Baldwin, "The Discovery of What It Means to Be An American"
Writing assignment:
Finished draft of letter home from Shreveport/Centenary due by 10:00 pm (email home to your parents or guardian and turned in on Canvas, Files, "August 7, Letter Home Finished")
9:00-11:45am
Visit with Professor Emeritus of Art, Bruce Allen: "How to Read Art"; workshop: "How to Write About Art"; "How to Write an Ekphrastic Poem"
1:15-3:30pm
Writing Workshop: Art, Writing, Expression, Meaning
4:00-5:30pm
Paris Travel Meeting - Carlile Auditorium, Mickle Hall 114
Other key terms/phrases/people/places:
Ekphrastic poem
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Thursday, August 8:
Departure from Shreveport!! Times TBA
Reading assignment:
Canvas: (while traveling; download before you leave)
Faulkner, "Four Letters from Paris 1925"
Writing assignment:
your “Paris Notebook,” daily while in Paris, including the experience of traveling internationally with a large group
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Friday, August 9:
Our home in Paris: The FIAP Jean Monnet, 30 rue Cabanis, 75014 PARIS; Tél. : +33(0)1 43 13 17 00
Reading assignment: (to be read on flight over to Paris)
Poems of Paris:
Czeslaw Milosz, “Bypassing Rue Descartes” (63); Zelda Fitzgerald, “From Letter to F. Scott Fitzgerald” (126); and James Wright, “A First Day in Paris” (152)
Activities:
Morning:
Arrival Paris; drop bags off at the FIAP; introduction to "Walking in Paris"
Afternoon:
Walking tour/lecture: Hemingway’s first “home” in Paris and the neighborhood as it currently exists (the 5th arrondissement, aka The Latin Quarter), Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, the Pantheon, the Place Contrescarpe; Rue Mouffetard
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Saturday, August 10:
Reading assignment:
Poems of Paris:
Ezra Pound, “In a Station of the Metro” (49); Langston Hughes, “Montmartre” (43); Harold Norse, "Beat Hotel, 9 Rue Gît-le-Coeur" (66); Clarence Major, "No One Goes to Paris in August" (160)
Activities:
Morning:
Luxembourg Gardens; Maubert Market; College of the Bernadins
Afternoon:
Montmartre; Sacre Coeur; La Tour Eiffel
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Sunday, August 11:
Reading assignment:
Poems of Paris:
Osip Mandelstam, “Notre Dame” (50); Jean Tardieu, "The Seine in Paris" (53); Jules Supervielle, "Rain and the Tyrants," (237); Paul Eluard, "Curfew" (240); & “Courage” (243)
Online:
Adam Gopnick, “Notre-Dame in the French Imagination”
Canvas:
John Berger, “Imagine Paris”
Activities:
Morning:
Walking tour/lecture: Sainte-Chapelle; The Conciergerie; The Cluny Museum; Notre Dame (we won’t be able to go inside, but you will have an opportunity to see it from a distance); Memorial des Martyrs de la Deportation
Afternoon: The Marais: Hôtel de Sully; Place des Vosges; Les Halles; Saint-Eustache
Evening: Fête des Tuileries @ 8:30 pm
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Monday, August 12:
Reading assignment:
Poems of Paris:
Fady Joudah, "Arc de Triomphe" (49)
Canvas:
Rainer Maria Rilke, “Archaic Torso of Apollo” and online
Online:
Michael Field, "La Giaconda"
Angelina Weld Grimké, "A Mona Lisa"
Writing assignment:
To be done during the day (today at the Louvre, Tuesday at the d’Orsay, and/or Wednesday at the Rodin): a description of a work of art, which also explores what it conveys to you. Let it be perhaps an unfamiliar work of art that stops you in your tracks and that, when viewed intently, still excites you, or maybe an arresting detail (a part of a larger work) that seems likely to elude the typical viewer. Document with a photograph your visual encounter with the work of art. Make note of the title and date of the work and the name and dates of the artist.
Activities:
Morning:
Louvre (see if you can find Rilke’s “archaic torso”); The Paris Opera (Garnier); Galleries Lafayette
Afternoon:
Avenue des Champs-Élysées; Arc de Triomphe
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Tuesday, August 13:
Reading assignment:
Poems of Paris
Gabriela Mistral, “Rodin’s Thinker” (183); Delmore Schwartz, “From Seurat’s Sunday Afternoon Along the Seine” (184); Robert Hayden, “Monet’s Waterlilies” (186); Rosanna Warren, “Renoir” (187)
Canvas
Rilke on Auguste Rodin
Online
The British Museum, "Ten Things You Might Not Have Known About Rodin"
Joshua Horn, "What Made Napoleon a Great Leader?"
Activities:
Morning:
Musée d’Orsay; Musée Rodin
Afternoon:
Dôme des Invalides (Napoleon’s tomb); Pont Alexandre III; walk along the Seine
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Wednesday, August 14:
Reading assignment:
Poems of Paris:
Heinrich Heine, "Marie Antoinette" (226); Benjamin Péret, "Louis XVI Goes to the Guillotine" (229)
Online:
Richard Covington, Smithsonian Magazine: "Marie Antoinette"
Writing assignment:
to be done during your free afternoon Wednesday, Aug 14 or Thursday, August 15: your letter home from Paris—written with those features (description and narrative) of your letter from home in mind and modeled in general on Faulkner’s letters home from Paris
Activities:
Morning: Versailles
Afternoon: The Orangerie; Jeu de Paume;
Dinner: Heureux Comme Alexandre restaurant near St. Germain
Evening: Caveau de la Huchette jazz club
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Thursday, August 15:
Reading assignment:
The Catacombs of Paris -- Wikipedia
Activities:
Morning:
Catacombs
Afternoon:
TBA
Evening:
Party on riverboat on the Seine
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Friday, August 16:
Departure Paris; arrival Shreveport
Writing assignment:
1) Use this time of travel to make sure you record in your Notebook any last impressions, scenes, dialog, thoughts about Paris and your experience there
2) Write a draft of your letter home from Paris—written with those features (description and narrative) not unlike your letter home during your first week at Centenary; think of Faulkner’s letters home from Paris while you're writing, but, of course, make it your own
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Saturday, August 17:
Decompression and work on portfolio and writing assignments
Writing assignment:
see Sunday assignments that you should be working on
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Sunday, August 18:
Decompression and work on portfolio and writing assignments
Writing assignment:
1) upload to Dropbox, by 10:00pm, in Files, "Letter Home From Paris" -- AND email this letter home to your parents, guardians, and/or other family members
2) upload to Dropbox - "Paris Scene Poem - Draft": by 10:00 pm; Upload in this manner: "Hendricks-scene poem-draft" -- using your own name instead of "Hendricks"
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Monday, August 19:
Reading assignment:
Online:
Sylvia Plath, "Morning Song"
Frank O'Hara, "The Day Lady Died"
Emily Leithauser, "Instinct"
Maggie Smith, "Good Bones"
Wendell Berry, "The Peace of Wild Things"
Canvas:
Gertrude Stein, "22 Objects from Tender Buttons" in David Lehman, ed. Great American Prose Poems
Writing assignment:
upload to Dropbox "Paris Scene Poem - Revised": by 10:00 pm
9:30-11:45am
Lecture/discussion on readings; Workshop on Poetry
1:15-3:00
Tutorials
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Tuesday, August 20:
Reading assignment:
Poems of Paris:
review readings of Wednesday, August 7
Vincent Van Gogh, "Starry Night"
Anne Sexton, "Starry Night"
Paola Ucello, "St. George and the Dragon"
U. A. Fanthorpe, "Not My Best Side"
Pieter Bruegel the Elder, "Landscape With the Fall of Icarus"
W. H. Auden, "Musee des Beaux Arts"
Writing assignment:
upload to Dropbox by 10:00pm, "Ekphrastic Poem - Draft"
9:00-11:45am
Lecture/discussion on readings; Workshop on Poetry and Flash Fiction
1:15-3:00pm
Tutorials
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Wednesday, August 21:
Reading assignment:
Canvas:
Raymond Carver, "Little Things"
Ernest Hemingway, Chapters 3, 6, and 12 from In Our Time
Online:
Lynne Cantwell, "Five Flash Fiction Elements"
Mamie Pound, "Dream Barbie"
Alice Walker, "The Flowers"
George Saunders, "Sticks"
Hugh Behm-Steinberg, "Taylor Swift"
Writing assignment:
1) upload to Dropbox by 10:00pm, "Ekphrastic Poem - revised"
2) upload to Dropbox by 10:00pm, "Flash Fiction - Draft"
9:00-11:45am:
Lecture/discussion on readings; Writing Workshop
1:15-3:00pm
Tutorials
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Thursday, August 22:
Writing assignment:
Turn in your class Notebook at the beginning of class
Work on revising your work for the Portfolio
upload to Dropbox by 10:00pm, "Flash Fiction - revised"
8:15-10:15am:
Class Poetry Reading: each of you will read ONE of your two revised poems to the class
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Friday, August 23
9:00-11:45am:
Wrap-up; Evaluations
***** Portfolio [which includes all of your revised work] uploaded to Canvas by 4:30 PM
***** OPTIONAL: Film/Dinner at Robinson Film Center: Hugo
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Saturday, August 24:
4:00-6:00 pm -- CIP Events for Parents’ Weekend
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Napoleon's Tomb (The Dome at Les Invalides)
Le Palais Garnier (Paris Opera)
Henri Cole, The New Yorker - Paris Diaries
How Fire Hit Notre Dame - A 3D Look at the Tragedy -- ABC News Australia
Rhapsody in Bleu: A History of Jazz in Paris -- Catherine Nevez, Lonely Planet
Subtle Giveaways That Show You're An American Tourist Abroad -- Eliza Dumais, Thrillist
David McCullough on Americans in Paris (You Tube video; an hour long lecture, but very thorough by one of the best American historians)
Jim Morrison - A Poet in Paris (You Tube video)
Lutetia - Wikipedia
Paris in the Middle Ages - Wikipedia
French Revolution - Wikipedia
Paris in the Belle Époque - Wikipedia
In the Notre Dame District on The Île de la Cité
Notre Dame Cathedral (under reconstruction)
The Conciergerie (old Medieval castle that housed Marie Antoinette's cell before she was beheaded in the Revolution)
Saint Chapelle (best stained glass room in the world)
Mémorial des Martyrs de la Déportation (powerful holocaust memorial behind Notre Dame)
On the right bank in and near the 4th - the Marais
a good restaurant just over the Louis-Phillippe bridge from the Isle St. Louis to the 4th is the Cafe Louis-Phillippe
the Rue de Rosiers - part of the old Jewish quarter of the Marais - is a good street to stop for a falafel - one well-known place is L 'As du Fallafel
"The Secret Seat of the Knights Templar" - BBC online
On the right bank, near the Louvre is both the Palais-Royal and a bit further away, Palais Garnier (the Paris Opera) - which I believe is the most beautiful building in Paris.
Right behind the Paris Opera is the Galeries Lafayette. Go into their main building to see the wonderful Art Deco dome ceiling.
If you're walking back from the Paris Opera towards the Louvre, stop in to Harry's New York Bar, which serves food as well as alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks. It's straight out of the Jazz Age and hasn't changed much since 1925; it still looks like a college bar from The Great Gatsby
In the 1st, near the border of the 4th
Les Halles shopping center - Postmodern design for an indoor mall
Centre Georges Pompidou (Modern Art Museum)
On the Left Bank (5th arr.) - near to Notre Dame
Shakespeare and Company Bookstore (the best and most important English language bookstore in Paris)
*The Croq Gallery (Marques Hardin and Hugo Lepoutere) - for tapas, drinks, and art: Hugo and Marques are the best!! Not at all a fancy, full-menu restaurant, but good for snacks and beverages. The company is good!
A very good - but not inexpensive - restaurant in this area: Le Reminet (around the corner from Hugo and Marques)
Also: one of my favorites in the spring, if I can sit on the patio: Le Beaurepaire, a Basque-French restaurant
St. Severin and St. Julien Le Pauvre churches (which are within two minutes of Shakespeare and Company)
the streets between Shakespeare and Company and the Place St. Michel (on the border of the 5th and 6th arrondissements) are remnants of what medieval Paris must have been like: crowded, narrow, and busy. Now it's the super-tourist area that's good for inexpensive food - mostly Greek. Along in here is one of the best jazz clubs in Paris: Le Caveau de la Huchette. It's the inspiration for the jazz club scene in La La Land (if you saw that film). It's small, underground in an old "cave" and the jazz is swing. Many people dance; it's really fun. It's best to get there about 15 minutes before it opens so you can get in and get a good seat next to the dance floor. Highly recommended! Only one minute from Shakespeare and Company.
The Pantheon - up the hill from Notre Dame -- (heading south, away from the river) -- walk to the top, if you're feeling like it, for a great view of Paris. The times for the tour to the top are just inside the entrance at the front of the church
St.-Etienne-du-Mont church next to the Pantheon is quite striking
around the corner from The Pantheon and St.-Etienne is the Rue Descartes which turns into the Rue Mouffetard - this walking area - plus the Place Contrescarpe - are a more intimate and calmer area than some other places in Paris. It still retains its neighborhood ambiance. Well worth wandering around these streets.
and just down the street ..........
In the 6th arr:
Luxembourg Gardens and Palace -- and the Medici Fountain (on the east side of the Palace, towards the Pantheon)
an old-fashioned French restaurant from the 1930s -- The Polidor -- is nearby
from these two places I might walk north, toward the river, down to the Boulevard St. Germain and hang out at either Les Deux Maggots or Le Cafe de Flore (two famous cafes) - for coffee or wine -
not far away I might eat at Brasserie Vagenende or the Brasserie Lipp if I'm feeling dressed up, or if a bit more casual, tho still very fine, Boissoniere Fish. Or just hanging out any time of day on Rue de Buci, between rue de Mazzarine and rue de Seine, around the corner from Fish and drinking a glass of wine and watching the world go by on this short but busy pedestrian street. I sometimes eat at L' Atlas on this street. Walking around in this area of St. Germain is a great delight.
strolling down the Rue de Seine, which Fish is on, north towards the Seine, you can find a great many art galleries. In the afternoon I like to end up at La Palette, a cafe where the waiters are a bit distant, but I always enjoy, especially if it's possible to sit outside -- if it's warm enough.
in the 7th arr.:
if you're heading over to the Eiffel Tower at some point, there's a pretty fine restaurant called La Fontaine de Mars, which is between Napoleon's Tomb and the Eiffel Tower, tho closer to the Eiffel. Quite nice and a bit pricy, but a great experience and worth it.
The Rodin Museum is highly recommended, and don't miss spending some time walking through the gardens behind the Museum. There is also a very decent cafe in the gardens.
Les Invalides - right next to the Rodin Museum - houses both Napoleon's Tomb in the Dome Church and the Museum of the Army, which is one of the best military museums in the world
One of the best department stores in Paris - with a superb, very upscale food market inside - is the Bon Marché department store. You can also buy take-away sandwiches here if you want to eat in the small park nearby at the Sevres-Babylone metro stop.