Paris between World Wars One and Two in the 1920s and 30s is often depicted as a cultural melting pot where artistic and cultural innovations took center stage. Paris at that time of les années folles (the “crazy years”) appears freeing, open-minded, and the place to go for budding artists to explore their identities. This course aims to analyze representations of Paris that go beyond romantic imaginations of the city. We will examine Paris in musicals, art, film, music, and novels alongside main artistic and cultural movements that spread outside the city and include: surrealism, the Harlem Renaissance, French colonialism, and the Négritude movement. In this course, students will experience, read, scrutinize, analyze, and discuss a variety of sources and will reflect critically upon the time period as it relates to present-day imaginations of Paris. We will address the questions of how human experiences are translated into art and the cultural implications of art, specifically during the 20th and 21st-centuries in Paris. We will examine societal institutions and the implications of individual and collective behaviors and the impacts on cultural relationships during this time period.