Les natures de Paris (1770-1914) – Paris and Champs-sur-Marne (France)
The natures of Paris (1770-1914)
How can we truly say, a century after Walter Benjamin, that Paris was the ‘19th-century capital’? In a recent publication, Christophe Charle proposed a plural version of this notion, finding, in Paris, a diversity of capitals and a diversity of 19th centuries. Home to incomplete and conflicted ‘modernity’, from which the idea stemmed, Paris was a place of confrontation between different populations and forms of life, which evolved in distinct worlds and temporalities. A government capital, a capital of revolutions and the theatre of class struggle, it was not only an industrial hub, but also a cultural capital, characterised by the exceptional cohabitation of the learned, writers and artists. As a continuation of these considerations, this colloquium seeks to convey that Paris was also a capital of ‘nature’.
Reuniting different researchers in history and literary studies, the event will strive to debate on the manners in which we come to know, describe or see nature, and to sense or experience its singular presence within the city.
Organised within the context of the URBANATURE I-SITE FUTURE programme – University Gustave Eiffel.
25th May : salle 216, centre Panthéon, université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne – 12 place du Panthéon, Paris 5e
26th May : salle V3071, bâtiment Copernic, université Gustave Eiffel – 5 boulevard Descartes, Champs-sur-Marne (77)