Victor Hugo’s Paris (ISHU 3720)
University of Virginia J-Term course in Paris, France
December 28, 2018-January 10, 2019 (travel on December 27/28 and January 11)
One might argue, as slate.fr has, that Victor Hugo is Paris. A great Romantic poet, world-renowned novelist and fighter for social justice, Victor Hugo dominated nineteenth-century Paris. Students taking this BIS-affiliated J-Term course, “Victor Hugo’s Paris” will explore the City of Light from literary, historical, artistic, biographical and cultural perspectives. Even as you consider the impact Hugo and Paris had on each other, you will analyze how both Paris and Hugo’s ideas are affecting you.
Hugo’s imprint is all over Paris. With Notre-Dame de Paris, for example, he saved the cathedral when his story’s popularity galvanized a crusade to restore it. Les Misérables is a tribute to Paris. Hugo was a senator and a member of the French Academy. The street he lived on was renamed “Avenue Victor Hugo” to celebrate his 79th birthday. An estimated wo million people attended his funeral four years later, and the Pantheon was deconsecrated so that he could be entombed there. Readings will connect Hugo’s ideas and life to the famous and not-so-famous sites we will visit.
More than a half-dozen renowned French Hugo scholars will share their expertise and discuss ideas with you, including the Victor Hugo Museum Director, Gérard Audinet; Hugo biographer and CNRS faculty member Jean-Marc Hovasse; Sorbonne professor Florence Naugrette; University of Rouen researcher Gérard Pouchain; Victor Hugo Museum letters and manuscript specialist Michèle Bertaux; French National Library manuscript and artwork curator Thomas Cazentre; and president of the Society of the Friends of Victor Hugo Arnaud Laster. Students will also meet Marie-Jean Mazurier, director of the Musée Victor Hugo – Maison Vacquerie in Villequier, in Normandy.
See Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) for more information and contacts.