Jazz-age Paris was, in the words of Maurice Sachs, “the decade of illusion.” It was the era of dancing,, le bal nègre, Mistinguett, the Charleston, Josephine Baker and jazz; it was the era of Cocteau, Picasso, Man Ray, Kiki de Montparnasse, and the Ballets Russes; it was the era of Paul Poiret, Coco Chanel and the flapper. This course provides a cultural overview of Paris in the Roaring Twenties, with a focus on the representation of women on stage and in literary texts. Our study includes surrealist art and literature, avant-garde film, performance art, jazz music, and cultural criticism. We examine a number of paradigms that arise in the literature of the period, from “the New Woman” to the female phantom to the machine woman to the Black Venus. We pay close attention both to primary sources and cultural reception. Art and films of or about the period will be shown. There is a creative, role playing component to the course. Readings: Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast; Andre Breton Nadja; Leonora Carrington, The Debutante; Gertrude Stein, The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas; Djuna Barnes, Nightwood; Colette, Chéri; the poems of Langston Hughes