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Institut Catholique de Paris
Spring Semester Elective 2028
12 credits
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Jump toThis class will examine American art from the Civil War until today. Different artistic movements and artists will be studied following on the class of L1 in order to understand how American art took over European art in the second half of the 20th century. American art at the end of the 19th century was largely influenced by various European movements, especially impressionism and post-impressionism. At the beginning of the 20th century, the American avant garde led by Alfred Stieglitz, an art dealer and photographer, stormed on the art scene. The interwar period was characterized by the Harlem Renaissance movement and the great projects led by the Work Progress Administration, especially the large murals commissioned to contemporary artists. The aftermath of World War II witnessed the arrival of abstract expressionism, and in the 1960s Pop art, pushing forward the superiority of the USA on the international art scene. The last part of the class will be dedicated to American contemporary art, particularly the representation of diversity from various perspectives from the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat to Kehinde Wiley.
Contact Hours:
2.5 Credits
| Course #: FDL_LEA_L2_S4_CM_MANAGEMENT | Section: Lecture
This course introduces students to the challenges of managing international organizations, both in business and in broader institutional contexts. Beyond technical skills, it explores the historical, cultural, and ethical dimensions of international management, drawing on Anglo-American sources, philosophical reflection, and literary perspectives. The aim is to give students both conceptual tools and cultural literacy for understanding how organizations operate across borders.
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This light-hearted but philosophical comedy by William Shakespeare can be considered the playwright’s testament on life and art as it happens to be the last he ever wrote. Like most of Shakespeare’s comedies, it is full of enchantment, with spirits dancing and singing on a utopian island. The magician Prospero, who rules the island, makes all things appear and disappear at will, and, thus, Prospero epitomizes the figure of the artist and may even represent the playwright himself. Also in true Shakespearean fashion, the intricacies of the plot abound with amusing misunderstandings spiced up with farcical interludes and entertain the audience. However, the plot itself is relatively unimportant compared with the deeper reflection on the nature of art and artists. In this course, we shall study the text by the light of two very different interpretations, one of which from the Globe Theater, in order to examine how staging can influence our vision of character and event.
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An in-depth study of some significant characteristics of the modern American presidency from its emergence in the 19th century until World War II with analysis of primary sources. The seminars aim to help students to develop their analytical skills and use knowledge acquired from the lectures.
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1 Credits
| Course #: FDL_AN_L2_S4_TD_CIVI_US | Section: Tutorial
Reviewing primary sources from World War One to the 20th century in the United States. Understanding the differences between various primary sources from the United States including diaries, letters, political acts and declarations, political cartoons, and political songs and how to analyze these primary sources in their respective historical contexts.
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This course focuses on the evolution of American history from the beginning of British colonization in America (1607) until the American Civil War (1861-65).
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1 Credits
| Course #: FDL_AN_L1_S2_TD_CIVI_US | Section: Tutorial
In this seminar students will work on texts that illuminate the historical period studied in the related lectures. They are also trained to comment on the texts.
Contact Hours:
2.5 Credits
| Course #: FDL_AN_L1_S2_CM_LITTE_US | Section: Lecture
This lecture course deals with the maturation of American literature, from its origins in colonial America to its accomplishment with the major writers of the first half of the nineteenth century. It explores the paradoxical relationship of American literature to European models, marked by a tension between imitation and a desire for emancipation. Focusing on major works, it highlights the specific issues at stake in American writings.
Contact Hours:
2.5 Credits
| Course #: FDL_AN_L2_S4_CM_LITTE_US | Section: Lecture
This survey course explores the development of American literature from the end of the Civil War to the Second World War. It focuses on the major writers and literary movements of the period (realism, naturalism, modernism, the Lost Generation) and highlights the blossoming of a national literature dealing with everyday life, regional identities, as well as historical issues while taking part in a transnational aesthetic dialogue.
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This class will be a survey of film adaptations of several major British, Irish and American authors such as, for instance, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, Bram Stoker, William Shakespeare, Washington Irving, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe, John Steinbeck and the filmmakers they have inspired. The emphasis will involve the issue of adaptation, screenwriting as well as the production code and its requirements as far as film is concerned. The role of Dramatization vs. Narration. Filmmakers such as David Lean, Kenneth Branagh, Alfred Hitchcock will figure as examples. The role of companies such as the Rank organization or Gainsborough as leaders of the trend will be given as representative elements. The conflict between literary authorship and the Cinema will be another concern.
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This class has as its objective to make students understand how and why we use critical theory. We will go over the history of literary critical theory from the 19th century to the present day, and in each class, students will learn how to manipulate the technical language of each critical approach. Using a number of prose and poetry texts belonging to the canon, we will successively study traditional approaches (historical, autobiographical and moral-philosophical) as well as other approaches which have shaped the way we read and understand texts: formalism, structuralism, narratology, psychoanalysis, Marxism, feminism, postcolonialism, decolonialism, ecocriticism and posthumanism. The texts with which we will be working with will be posted on the platform throughout the semester.
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This course is an introduction to the organization of political institutions in the USA which differs greatly from Europe. There is no equivalent to the French Ministry for Culture, and a large part of American cultural institutions is funded privately.
The first part of the class will be dedicated to the creation of the first American museums, from the Peale Museum in the late 18th century by painter Charles Willson Peale, the foundation of the Smithsonian institution and the Barnum Museum in the first half of the 19th century. The history of international fairs from the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia in 1876 will be studied, especially their immense power of attraction and the representation of American culture that was then promoted.
In the 20th century, real cultural policies started pushed forward by the federal government during the period of the New deal as well as after the war with the Marshall Plan, and in the 1960s with the creation of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for Humanities. The importance of philanthropy and patronage will be examined from the Robber barrons until today, as the functioning of Boards of trustees and the controversies which started with the origin of some American fortunes (for instance the Sackler family). Finally the class will look at the debates that have risen in the cultural spheres in the USA from the culture wars of the 1980s to Black Lives Matter today.
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We will consider a century of British cinema through key figures (the Brighton School of filmmakers, Iris Barry, Alfred Hitchcock, and Ken Loach), and wonder how the British film industry made its way through global conflicts, eventually carving out its own identity.
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2.5 Credits
| Course #: FDL_AN_L3_S6_CM_CINE_ANGLO_ANALYSE_FILM | Section: Lecture
This class will focus on the analysis of two films which both are representative of the Hollywood Film Industry: Birth of a Nation (1915) and Gone with the Wind (1939). Gone with the Wind has been regarded as the quintessential Hollywood Film. We will analyze the film most important sequences and examine the modes of production involved. As for Birth of a Nation we will look at the different themes and techniques which have led to its production as well as the context of the time. The students will be invited to interact as those two major works focus on what has led to the contemporary association between the cinema and the United States. Silent filmmaking and its modalities will also be studied.
Contact Hours:
1 Credits
| Course #: FDL_AN_L1_S2_TD_ANALYSE_FILMIQUE | Section: Tutorial
The seminar groups are an extension of the lecture course “English-language cinema”.
This course aims to familiarize students with the New Hollywood cinema as an art form, as a cultural practice and as an industry. We read texts dealing with the shift from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema to a more radical and politically minded wave of filmmakers, from the early 1960s to the 1980s.
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1 Credits
| Course #: FDL_AN_L3_S6_CM_HIST_IDEES_US | Section: Lecture
These key words, key ideas are prismatic. They are many faceted. The Promised Land, Freedom, The Constitution, Free Enterprise, Work, Entertainment Industry, Youth Culture, Race, Pluralism, Sex, and Media & Mass Communications have been expressed in many American Civilization ways over the years. My intention in this course is not to lead you from milestone to milestone, bourn to bourn. Your texts in our class handout Key Ideas of American Civilization do that. Read these chapters you must.
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This lecture course aims at describing the evolution of the English language from the time the very first Germanic tribes set foot on the island down to Early Modern English (late 16th century). In other words, it focusses on Old English and Middle English and ends up with Renaissance language and the Great Vowel Shift. An important part of the course is devoted to historical and cultural aspects that have had an influence on the evolution of the English language. A basic knowledge of European and British history is therefore required.
Contact Hours:
2.5 Credits
| Course #: FDL_AN_L1_S1_TD_ARTS_VIS | Section: Tutorial
The seminars are closely related to the lectures in British art history. They focus on the period studied in the lectures and offer a training in the analysis of primary sources.
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Following the theoretical approach of the different political organisations and regimes, the course will elaborate on different examples of contemporary forms of government such as United Kingdom, USA, China, Russia, Iran, India…In order to fully understand the founding principles of the different political organisations and apply the specific methodology of Comparative Politics. The course is entirely in English, in order to allow the students to master the specific vocabulary attached to this field of study.
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Institut Catholique de Paris
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