Carole Salmon (University of Massachusetts Lowell)
This panel offers an overview of the representations of Paris, yesterday and today, in literature, music, painting, and photography both within and outside the Francophone world. A cosmopolitan city par excellence for many centuries, Paris has always been a welcoming place and a choice destination for artists of all kinds and all origins. It is also a place of inspiration, and sometimes a character in the work or arts it has inspired. The representations of Paris are infinite, in French as well as in other languages around the world. In today’s globalized world, where all ideas spread via the Internet and almost every person is free to travel easily throughout borders, what is Paris’ role in the world of Arts in general? In music, painting, literature, or any other form of artistic expression, what is the importance of France’s capital today compared to yesterday? Beyond the intellectual community, Paris also attracts migrants, international students, tourists and other lovers of the capital. This panel invites communications in French or in English about Paris and its representations in the largest definition of the term, in order to measure the influence and the role of the City of Lights in the artistic world in general around the globe at the beginning of the 21st century.