Writing the Expatriation: American Write

This seminar offers a dive into the richness of the Parisian cultural landscape in the 1920s, particularly through the lens of the American expatriate writers who lived there and produced some of their most important works at that time.

In this seminar, we will ask: What made Paris such a fertile ground for literary production at the time? Why is it that American literature took such a decisive turn abroad and not at home? Did French artists and writers have an influence—both in terms of contents and style—on American writers of the Lost Generation, for instance? To what extent did the exile of American expatriates help them find their own voices and outline the literature of their own country more accurately? What gender-centered questions do these works raise—if one thinks, for instance, of the famous flapper popularized by Fitzgerald and embodied by characters such Lady Brett Ashley in Hemingway’s first novel? Finally, what role did publishing houses, editors, and meeting places like G. Stein’s apartment play then?