Paris in the Americas: Yesterday and Today (Curating and Interpreting Culture)

Across centuries, France -and especially its capital city, Paris- established itself as a major source of influence across the Americas through colonization, diplomacy and political influence, but also through intellectualism and cultural productions of all sorts, either by imposition, exportation or as a trend of fashion via a bilateral transatlantic movement of people and ideas. In itself, the influence of Paris, the "capital of the world," as Patrice Higonnet (2002) analyzes it, is similar to a phantasmagoria, which results in a transatlantic fascination for the city of lights and all the tangible or intangible elements that function as its embodiment. As Stuart Hall explains, understanding cultures and languages and their representations through various manifestations presupposes that we can identify, understand and interpret the signs that constitute their core identity. (Hall 2013).

In an interdisciplinary approach, this multi-authored, edited volume examines the long-established relationships between Paris and cities across the American continent, in the past as well as in the present time. In order to explore all aspects of Paris's influence(s) in the Americas, this volume is organized around two main axes of analysis: first, in a geographical progression from North to South, the reader is invited to reflect upon cultural productions that demonstrate the many influences of Paris in the Americas through theater, literature, philosophy, fashion and cinema (chapters 1 to 6). In the following chapters (7 to 11), the volume focuses particularly on a variety of urban connections that take the reader from South to North this time, analyzing tangible architectural and urban design influences of Paris in major cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, New York, or Washington D.C.

In today's global world, this multifaceted study of Paris' visible and invisible influences in the Americas clearly reveals the transnational intersections of spaces, languages, people and cultures.

Carole Salmon, 'Chevalier dans l'ordre des palmes académiques', is a native of France. She lived in Paris for several years while studying literature and linguistics at Paris III Sorbonne-Nouvelle before moving to the United States to complete her Ph.D. in French Studies at Louisiana State University. Salmon is currently a Professor of French in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Furman University. With training in both Francophone literature and sociolinguistics, her research focuses on representations of linguistic and cultural identities of French and Francophone communities in cultural productions such as cinema and literature in North America. She has published sociolinguistic studies on the Cajuns of Louisiana and the Franco-Americans of New England, two historically French-speaking communities where she has lived for several years, thus gaining a personal understanding of their linguistic and cultural identities. As a natural development, her most recent research focuses on the many influences of Paris and France in the Americas throughout the centuries. Salmon's interdisciplinary approach is informed by her previous research in both Francophone sociolinguistics and film studies for the past decade, as well as by her teaching experience as a university professor for the past fifteen years. She is the Review Editor for the Linguistics section of 'The French Review'.