"Fleurs de Paris"

Vinken, Barbara (2020): "Fleurs de Paris". In: Dorson, James; Sedlmeier, Florian; Snyder-Körber, MaryAnn und Wege, Birte (eds.) : Anecdotal modernity : making and unmaking history. Buchreihe der ANGLIA, Vol. 68. Berlin: De Gruyter. pp. 299-302

Abstract

The Eiffel Tower was first perceived as a monstrous Babylonian tower, which disfigured the incomparable beauty of Paris, city of cities. A lot of reinterpretation, and some serious work on myth, was needed to transform it into a new Notre Dame de Paris. The gothic cathedrals had, in their turn, been recast by the writers of the nineteenth century as Babylonian. Nowadays, thanks to this work of translation and rereading, the Eiffel Tower is a new protecting Notre Dame at whose feet the city gathers. She signifies a coming home, and a coming into her own once the Germans were driven out of the city and Paris was free again.

• Item Type: Book Section
• Faculties: Languages and Literatures > Department 2 > Romance Philology
• Subjects: 400 Language > 440 French and related languages
• ISBN: 978-3-11-066849-0
• Place of Publication: Berlin
• Language: English