Post-War Paris: The Rebirth

About this course:

Four years of Nazi occupation dampened but never extinguished the creative spirit of Paris. When Paris was liberated in 1944, that spirit exploded in many directions, making the city once again a cultural mecca. Existentialism and feminism influenced literature, film, and music.  After the gloom and shortages of wartime, the fashion industry came back to life and Parisian playwrights reinvented theatre. Popular music incorporated biting social criticism; the words of great poets, and jazz became the music of the young. In this course, we explore this amazingly vital cultural milieu that flourished amid enormous political tensions.