Century Paris Research Articles

Cabaret and decency: how contemporary definitions of cabaret are shaped by censorship

The abundant ‘cabaret’ events that populate London’s contemporary entertainment scene strategically adopt specific structures and aesthetics. Common points of reference include the Weimar Republic, Berlin clubs of the 1920’s, ‘salacious’ female nudity, ‘outrageous’ camp reveals and inevitable references to Bob Fosse’s ‘Cabaret’. The events often promise to provide a ‘high quality’ drinking and dining experience. In this way ‘nostalgia’ can be turned into financial success. This formulaic approach defines the contemporary understanding of cabaret, omitting vital aspects of the genre while turning it into a purely commercial commodity. My artistic practice as research interrogates the experimental nature of the cabaret of late nineteenth century Paris within a contemporary British context. Setting itself apart from the allure of ‘flesh and cash’ of the West End cabaret, Ms. Paolini’s Phantasmagoria Cabaret, regularly programmed at Hoxton Hall, London, since 2016, focuses on exploring an updated experience of European cabaret within the abandoned British Music Hall and Variety tradition. The wider cultural discourse fails to report on the possibility of different approaches to cabaret. I will draw on particular examples from my practice – how a 60-something performer clad in Y-fronts, for example, was regarded by a certain audience as obscene – to explore the subtleties of contemporary censorship and what it says about our cultural landscape. The ‘body reveal’ – one of the commercial selling points of West End cabaret replica productions – becomes unacceptable in the different context of Ms. Paolini’s Phantasmagoria Cabaret. This article examines how censorship operates in relation to contemporary experimental cabaret, providing an alternative account of the contemporary development of traditional cabaret and suggesting that there are different angles from which to approach discussion of the genre.

Mutual dependance of Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755–1826), author-gourmand and Anthelme Richerand (1755–1840), surgeon-physiologist, in early 19th century Paris: A speculative relationship of contrasting personalities

“The Physiology of Taste”, authored by Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin in 1826, has been in print for two centuries and has made the author a household name in gastronomic circles. In it, he paid his respect to his friend Anthelme Richerand, a surgeon-physiologist in Paris, who published “New Elements of Physiology” in 1801. The purposes of the present study were (Brillat-Savarin, 1826) to explore the extent to which Brillat was dependent upon insights derived from Richerand to support the numerous medical and scientific statements made in his book and (Brillat-Savarin, 2011) to understand the basis for the relationship between the two individuals which was sustained over many years. It is proposed that the relationship was mutually beneficial, despite their very different individual talents and weaknesses. It is argued that Brillat-Savarin's colorful descriptions of topics such as taste, smell, appetite, thirst, sleep, dying and death were such, that the information must surely have been derived from someone who had scientific and medical knowledge of these subjects, most likely Richerand. In turn the negative opinions of Richerand by his associates, his ambitious personality, his negative view of eminent colleagues and his tendency to denigrate others, presumably made him a lonely, unfulfilled individual despite his professional achievements. It is speculated that Brillat-Savarin became a source of much needed emotional support for Richerand by providing him with stimulating company and friendship. Richerand's appreciation of this appeared in his eulogy for Brillat. This mutually beneficial, extended relationship has not been analyzed previously and provides an important insight into the life and writings of a major figure the history of gastronomy.

The Fusion of Japanese Zen Aesthetics and the Image of Machi-Man (Townspeople) – Reflections in Ukiyo-e and 19th Century Paris Montmartre Art

The three core elements of Japanese Zen art aesthetics are mono no aware, yugen, and wabi-sabi, but these are only modern research interpretations of Zen art aesthetics. By tracing the roots of Rinzai Zen Buddhism from China, free from the written word, this paper finds that Zen Buddhism has influenced Japanese culture in both thought and life and has fused the cultural practices of the Japanese townspeople's society over time. Therefore, the article analyzes the connection between the Japanese Zen aesthetics and the culture of the Machi-man (townspeople). At the same time, the paper also argues that the relationship between Zen art aesthetics and the townspeople spread worldwide with the spread of ukiyo-e as an art form. This relationship is visualized in the form of case studies, including but not limited to the use of ukiyo-e artworks to substantiate this relationship and the analysis of the works of Toulouse-Lautrec to decipher how this relationship between aesthetics and townspeople has been learned in foreign lands.

Exploration of the Female Ballerinas Image in Edgar Degas Works: the Star (L'toile)

Edgar Degas work on female ballerinas is one of his most famous subjects, and his paintings often cut through the gorgeous surface to show the viewer the difficulties and dark side behind the scene. Through a specific analysis of Degas 1876 work the star, this research analyzes Degas' images of ballerinas in the context of the life of ballerinas in 19th century Paris and Degas' painting career. Possible inner meanings are suggested, including the ballerinas' realization of self-worth, as well as escape the reality and the projection of Degas' inner thoughts. It is argued that the female ballerinas in his paintings expressed his ambition in the pursuit of art. Degas' characterization in front of and behind the scenes is likewise a confirmation of self-worth. It is argued that the new feminist-oriented art historical research needs the inspiration from Degas, with his fusion of both the identities of a feminism thinker and an artist.

Sex and the city: Rousseau on sexual freedom and its modern discontents

ABSTRACT Like some ‘second wave’ feminists, Rousseau believes that modern sexual practices are not a manifestation of a newfound autonomy—rather, they reflect its systemic deprivation. Drawing on his critique of libertine culture in eighteenth century Paris, I show how even consensual sex may lead to a chronic deficit of recognition, coupled with psychological misery. To avoid such discontents, sexual freedom must include a satisfying sexual recognition. I articulate the conditions for such recognition as cultivated in Emile’s erotic education. Informed by amour-propre, Emile would seek a sexual partner who could recognize him as superior, yet, because Emile is also endowed with pity, he would understand such superiority in terms of uniqueness, independence and authentic expression, rather than as winning the transient favors of public taste. I propose that Rousseau’s recognitive account of sexual desire is applicable to current-day philosophical and public debates.

A Regime of philosophical admiration ? Cultural uses of sociability in seventeenth century Paris

At the eve of the French Revolution, the polygraph Louis Sebastien Mercier in a chapter of his book Tableau de Paris (1782-1788), entitled Patrie du vrai philosophe could describe the social situation of philosophers in Paris in the following terms : C’est dans les grandes villes que le Philosophe lui-meme se plait ; tout en les condamnant ; parce qu’il y cache mieux qu’ailleurs sa mediocre fortune ; parce qu’il n’a pas du moins a en rougir ; parce qu’il y vit plus libre, noye dans la foule ...

Avoiding silent opera: the \u2018grand\u2019 performing right at work in nineteenth century Paris

The music industry has been made possible through performing rights based on a law introduced by the post-revolutionary French national assembly in 1791. However, it took until the mid-nineteenth century until a system of royalty collection was established in France (and another half a century or more in other countries). In France, this new system for non-dramatic performing rights was preceded by royalty regulations in theatres. This study describes how nineteenth century composers were compensated for their work in the Paris Opera through this performing right for drama, known as the ‘grand right’. The tariff-based compensation method had been put in place by a royal réglement in 1713. It created a classic winner-take-all phenomenon in which composers such as Auber, Meyerbeer, and Halévy thrived in the nineteenth century. A contributing fact was the opera house programming which, contrary to the programming of today, favoured new pieces. ‘Grand opéras’ were à la mode and they contributed to the financial success of their composers. However, these operas eventually lost their attraction. In 1884, the Paris Opera adopted a compensation system based on a percentage of box office revenues. The study is based on primary data for 1810–1866.

Chagall’s Green and Yellow Jews: Painting Race in Russia and Post-Dreyfus France

In early twentieth century Paris, the Russian Jewish artist Marc Chagall began a series painting Eastern European Jews in hues of green, yellow, and red. The paintings were based upon Chagall’s childhood memories, as well as his personal encounters with Jews in the shtetl. They were also portraits of a universal social type. I argue that Chagall’s experiences as a Jew in both France and Russia influenced this series. He repeatedly depicted archetypes of the Jew such as Rabbis and klezmers. Yet he visibly altered these archetypes via non-naturalist hues of green, yellow, and red. This play on skin color served to both signify and destabilize perceptions of racial differences that underscored French and Russian society at the time. These perceptions included a range of Jewish phenotypes, and, particularly in France, took their most extreme form in the dichotomy between blackness and whiteness. Chagall’s multicolored images of Jews illuminate the roles of both the individual and the collective imagination in shaping these perceptions of race. As such, these paintings offer a compelling view of racial identity as existing somewhere between the psychic and the social. That is, they reveal racial identities as phantasms—illusions that, despite their immaterial nature, are linked to the social sphere. In emphasizing this phantasmatic aspect of race, they offered a form of political resistance to the racial politics that, coursing through post-Dreyfus France and Russia, would have widespread and devastating consequences on Jews and other dispersed populations throughout Europe in the decades to come. In more general terms, this analysis of Chagall’s paintings of Jews demonstrates the power of art and visual culture as a means of both producing and reconfiguring notions of identity within political and social spheres.

Un manuscrit parisien et ses énigmes: Le livre d’heures des Le Tellier (Paris, c. 1460)

The Le Tellier manuscript, book of hours, use of Paris (c. 1460) in Latin and French ; from a private collection in South Carolina, Unites-States ; (172 × 118 mm), Vellum ; A-D + 222 + E-H. This manuscript is written by several hands in gothic liturgical, in dark brown ink with rubrics painted in red, between two verticals and 16 horizontals, on a velum ruled in red. The text capitals are touched in yellow, and the prayers are highlighted with one-line initials and line-endings in burnished gold on grounds of pink and blue patterned with white tracery. Along the manuscript, hundreds of two- three- and four-line initials in blue or pink, patterned with white tracery and foliate infills on burnished gold grounds mark the offices and prayers. An unusually rich cycle of decoration adorns this colorful Parisian book of hours, including hundreds of panel borders in left margin of fine burnished gold leaves and disks on hairline tendrils and stems among acanthus leaves in gold and blue and sprays of colored flowers and fruits. The center of this artefact remains the twenty-six large miniatures in full color and gold placed in arched compartments with ornamented baguettes frames and full decorated borders. These highly detailed paintings result from the meticulous work of several artists, they depict various traditional scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary and the passion of Christ. While the illumination and the texts indicate that the manuscript was intended for use of Paris, several details deserve attention, in particular regarding its production. In this paper, we intend to give a brief description of this amazing manuscript mainly produced in Paris ; and to point out some textual and iconographic features which are of particular interest for the understanding of medieval methods of « mass production » of fine Books of Hours in the second half of the fifteenth century Paris.

Gastronomy in early 19th century Paris: Divergent views of food-writers Grimod de La Reynier and Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin on “the first restaurateur”, Antoine Beauvilliers

Gastronomy in early 19th century Paris: Divergent views of food-writers Grimod de La Reynier and Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin on “the first restaurateur”, Antoine Beauvilliers

‘I have only One Country, it is the World’: Madame Cama, Anticolonialism, and Indian-Russian Revolutionary Networks in Paris, 1907–17

Abstract In September 1912, the Russian author Maxim Gorky wrote to the Paris-based Indian revolutionary Madame Cama and asked her to write an article on Indian women and their role in the Indian freedom struggle. Their correspondence highlights several issues: Cama’s central role among Indian and anticolonial nationalists from across the world in early twentieth-century Paris; the inspiration from the 1905 Russian Revolution and alliances between exiled Indian and Russian revolutionaries; the role of women in revolutionary movements. Focusing on Indian-Russian networks in early twentieth century Paris, this article examines Cama’s thoughts on feminism and socialism, and the inspiration from Russian revolutionaries in Cama’s anticolonial activities.

Образ Парижа в графике русских художников-эмигрантов

Париж начала XX столетия явился Меккой для художников из разных стран. Здесь можно было познакомиться с современными тенденциями и художественными течениями в искусстве, влиться в интернациональное сообщество авангардных художников и даже выставить свои работы, исполненные в самом модернистском ключе. Большинство представителей русского художественного круга, решившихся на эмиграцию после революции 1917 года, концентрировалось именно в Париже. Те, кто побывал хоть однажды в этом центре европейской художественной жизни, не могли забыть этот город, подаривший им художественную идентичность, чувство новизны в искусстве, ощущение первооткрывателя. Поэтому многие из них посвящали Парижу свои произведения, в том числе и русские художники-эмигранты. В статье анализируется образ Парижа в творчестве Л.Д. Гудиашвили, А.Б. Серебрякова, Ю.П. Анненкова, А.М. Арнштама. At the beginning of the 20th century Paris became a mecca for the artists from different countries. Here they could learn modern tendencies and art movements, become a part of international avant-garde artistic community and even exhibit the most modernistic artworks. The major part of the Russian artists who decided to emigrate after the Revolution of 1917 settled in Paris. Those who had been only once in this center of the European art life would never forget Paris who gave them their artistic identity, a feeling of modernity, experience of a pioneer. That’s why many of them including Russian emigre artists dedicated their works to Paris. The article analyzes the image of Paris in the work of Lado Gudiashvili, Alexander Serebryakov, Yuri Annenkov, Alexander Arnstam.

Infrastructures of Light: Tropicapitalism and Germaine Krull’s Camera

To understand the relationship between the camera and colonial capitalism, we must consider photography not just as a tool but as an infrastructural system, the very grounds upon which movements of goods, capital and ideas can be sustained, regulated, and interrupted. Focusing on French-Dutch-German photographer Germaine Krull, this article examines how the development of photographic infrastructures in mid-twentieth century Paris and Equatorial Africa both created and foiled networks for distributing fantasies of colonial development. Photographic infrastructures enabled the whiting out of racialized labor, the recasting of rubber, coffee and gold as the currency of freedom during WWII, and the refining of seemingly limitless resources of African light into image-objects. In the service of colonial fantasy, however, Krull’s photography was an unwittingly “dodgy” infrastructure, bringing to light a series of interruptions, decelerations and breakdowns in the resource networks purporting to insulate the French empire from the dangers of world war and propel imperial subjects and citizens into a future of colonial progress. The history of Krull’s “dodgy” photographic infrastructure therefore reveals pathways to undoing colonial capitalism from within, showing how deliberate photographic system failures might yet redirect capitalist circulations towards a politics of redistribution and non-accumulation, and an ethics of care.

La trasmissione dell’'ars dialectica' tra i secoli XV e XVI: Lorenzo Valla e Pierre de la Ramée

This essay addresses the theme of the transmission of knowledge starting from the process of traslatio studiorum. Such phenomenon – which occurred between the ancient Greece and occidental Europe since the medieval period – was intended as the triggering phenomenon of a whole series of transmission processes, persisted untill the Renaissance. It is my intention to propose a double riding, considering the Mediterranean area as a transient space, where different current of thoughts have been screened by speculative and linguistical filters, represented by the overlapping of commentators and translators. 
 On first place, I intend to identify this phenomenon of knowledge's transmission, understood as transcultural process, taken in his historical connotation, that is as a process that commutes from one century to another. Secondly, considering the Arabic intervention concerning the translation and comment of Aristotelian auctoritates, I would like to analyze the delicate process of transmission and contamination between different systems of thought. Within these coordinates, it is my intention to focus on the contact between two systems of thought that applied such approaches in the Dialectic field, namely Lorenzo Valla's and Pierre de la Ramée's, better known as Petrus Ramus. I will take the cases of Valla and Ramus as examples of this phenomenon of translation: first, in the historical sense, since there is a shift of approach from century to century; secondly, in a geographical sense that affects the Mediterranean area, as both Valla and Ramus dealth with the linguistic problems linked to dialectic received from the Arabic heritage. I argue that these speculative currents might have come into contact, first, as the product of a long process of translatio studiorum, and then, as heirs of a tradition that had been influenced by the transmissions that had taken place in the Mediterranean.
 In conclusion, the purpose of this note is to show the preliminary and little debated issue of the possible contact between two paradigms of thought which justified a change in the approach of the study of Dialectic between the major Italian centers of knowledge of the XV century and XVI century Paris. This creates the space for some hints of acclimatization of Valla's dialectic at the Ramus paradigm, thanks to the shifting of attention from the perfectly solid linguistic practice in Valla's logical philological method to the correct procedures of reasoning that were completely detached from the metaphysics dimension and projected towards the institution of the Methodus.
 

Science, Technology, State and Society in Development Process: Paris in the Twentieth Century by Jules Verne

The capitalist development that creates leaps in science and technology, today is in a distressed state due to the economic crisis and pandemic and this requires a critical evaluation of the relationship between capitalist development and science and technology. In this context, the remarkable work by Jules Verne, Paris in the Twentieth Century foresees today beyond science-fiction and provides an understanding of the two aspects of capitalist development and science and technology through the striking literary language. Verne describes how science and technological progress resulting from the industrial revolution, had monetized and mechanized Twentieth Century Paris society in the hands of industrialists and bankers. While he praises scientific and technological developments, on the other hand he argues that many aspects of the social sphere had transformed into a cylinder-piston relationship and these developments weren’t able to cure the misery. He develops this thesis in his story by touching on many concepts from universities to literature, from music to politics, from unemployment to property. He also reveals the role of the state in the scientific and technological development process triggered by industrial revolution. The aim of the study is to reveal this dual aspect of science and technology that developed with the industrial revolution, based on Verne's Paris work in the Twentieth Century.

A Russian Student in 18th Century Paris: New Data for the Biography of Théodore Karjavine

A Russian Student in 18th Century Paris: New Data for the Biography of Théodore Karjavine

The effect of overshooting 1.5 °C global warming on the mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet

Abstract. Sea-level rise associated with changing climate is expected to pose a major challenge for societies. Based on the efforts of COP21 to limit global warming to 2.0 ∘C or even 1.5 ∘C by the end of the 21st century (Paris Agreement), we simulate the future contribution of the Greenland ice sheet (GrIS) to sea-level change under the low emission Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 2.6 scenario. The Ice Sheet System Model (ISSM) with higher-order approximation is used and initialized with a hybrid approach of spin-up and data assimilation. For three general circulation models (GCMs: HadGEM2-ES, IPSL-CM5A-LR, MIROC5) the projections are conducted up to 2300 with forcing fields for surface mass balance (SMB) and ice surface temperature (Ts) computed by the surface energy balance model of intermediate complexity (SEMIC). The projected sea-level rise ranges between 21–38 mm by 2100 and 36–85 mm by 2300. According to the three GCMs used, global warming will exceed 1.5 ∘C early in the 21st century. The RCP2.6 peak and decline scenario is therefore manually adjusted in another set of experiments to suppress the 1.5 ∘C overshooting effect. These scenarios show a sea-level contribution that is on average about 38 % and 31 % less by 2100 and 2300, respectively. For some experiments, the rate of mass loss in the 23rd century does not exclude a stable ice sheet in the future. This is due to a spatially integrated SMB that remains positive and reaches values similar to the present day in the latter half of the simulation period. Although the mean SMB is reduced in the warmer climate, a future steady-state ice sheet with lower surface elevation and hence volume might be possible. Our results indicate that uncertainties in the projections stem from the underlying GCM climate data used to calculate the surface mass balance. However, the RCP2.6 scenario will lead to significant changes in the GrIS, including elevation changes of up to 100 m. The sea-level contribution estimated in this study may serve as a lower bound for the RCP2.6 scenario, as the currently observed sea-level rise is not reached in any of the experiments; this is attributed to processes (e.g. ocean forcing) not yet represented by the model, but proven to play a major role in GrIS mass loss.

How Far From a 19th Century Flâneur? A Female Urban Walker in Paul Auster’s In the Country of Last Things Abstract

The research paper is going to revolve around Paul Auster’s urban dystopia entitled In the Country of Last Things . Yet, my claim is that the novel may also be categorised as an American city novel in which flâneuristic account plays a significant role. The focal point of the paper is going to be the comparison between Austerian figure of the urban stroller with a traditional one as developed in the 19 th century Paris. Although since then there have been numerous transformations and reformulations regarding literary representations of the city walker, I shall examine the protagonist Anna Blume in reference to features characteristic for a traditional 19 th century urban stroller. Some theorists claim that women cannot be regarded as city walkers; yet, the aim of the research paper is to prove that Anna, although a female character, can be considered as a postmodern variation of a flâneur. Auster’s fictional world might be compared to Lewis Mumford’s “theater of social action” [1] where the inhabitants’ quotidian drama is staged. This urban theater functions as fertile ground for the city walker’s observations, investigations, as well as subsequent artistic productions. A conventional flâneur is characterised as an aimless stroller for whom the very act of the ‘inspection’ of the crowd is a source of leisure. Yet, his desire is not only to experience the surroundings, but also to observe the physical construction of the city as well as its social dimension – the people around. Taking into consideration the very specificity of the flâneuristic figure, Anna Blume, despite representing the female part of society, can be regarded as a postmodern urban stroller since her only means of discovering and ‘learning’ the space is by walking along the city. Hence, the character created by Auster both diverges from the conventional image of the city walker in term of the characteristic features, and is consistent with it when the scope of the flâneur’s responsibilities is considered. [1] Mumford, Lewis. “What Is a City?” In LeGates Richard and Frederic Stout The City Reader . London: Routledge, 2011. 91-95.

From Royal Hôtel to Street Brawls: The Location, Personnel and Public Problems of the Venetian Embassy in Seventeenth-Century Paris

Where histories of Venetian diplomatic success in France have long drawn on the ambassadors’ dispacci and relazioni , these are only just beginning to be used to explore the personalities of the ambassadors themselves. In contrast, this article will use French notarial and legal records to investigate the daily lives of the ambassador and his staff in seventeenth century Paris. In particular, it will examine documents attesting to the turbulent life of the Hotel de Venise, and its boisterous staff and servants. Apart from their official presence at Versailles, little has been done to establish where the ambassadors lived in Paris, and with whom they had contact. This article first shows the mobility of the official hotel , but also points to simultaneous lodgings being held by the ambassadors, suggesting an official and a private life. This also illustrates the ambassadors in contact with the Parisian elite, beyond the court. It then outlines how the French archival record points to which were the most visible household officers, and traces their appearance in legal and business transactions. It demonstrates a distinct corps of Italian officers, and French domestiques , all of whom represented Venice in Paris, and had contact with Parisians. While these servants eased the ambassadors’ existence in France, they also created problems for them. Indeed, some servants were more likely to make trouble than others. In situations where the ambassadors’ servants breached the peace, or were themselves menaced by the French, who was ultimately responsible for the good behaviour of the embassy?

Tropical Flânerie & the Creative Asian City: a perambulation of literature

The flâneur became a literary figure of 19th century Paris and was taken up as a theoretical figure in the early 20th century. During these periods the city was undergoing massive social, architectural and infrastructural change. Today, the notion of the flâneur is experiencing a renaissance as cities are undergoing significant restructuring towards creative industries and economies. At the same time, two distinctive aspects of the theory of the flâneur are facing critique. One is to do with geography. The theory is based on cities of the global north, such as Paris, London and New York, and thus inherently entwined with the colonial metropole. The other aspect concerns gender. The flâneur invokes a masculine gaze, and the possibility of a female flâneuse remains under debate.The current century has been witness to the rapid growth of cities, including in the tropics and Asia. This literature review – in the style of a perambulation – explores flânerie with examples of tropical Asian cities. Singapore is of special interest as it strives to become a ‘renaissance city’ – a global city of the arts, based on creative industries and economies. As a theory and method of critically meandering the creative city, flânerie offers a way of engaging and contributing to an ethnography of urban life. Furthermore, such a method may usefully rework the notion of the gaze of the flâneur to include the use of photography.