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- Title
Un chroniqueur curieux de Paris et de la promenade: Edmond-Jean-François Barbier et son journal (1718-1763).
- Authors
Turcot, Laurent
- Abstract
The journal of Edmond-Jean-François Barbier, written from 1718 through 1763, can be considered both as a chronicle of Parisian everyday life and as a diary. This essay analyzes how Barbier narrates the promenade (stroll) and shows that his account illustrates a transformation in the way this pastime was conceived. Originally associated with the monarch and aristocracy, with civility and fashionable social ritual its dominant features, the promenade allowed practitioners to see and, most important, be seen. In his journal Barbier puts the promenade to a new purpose, using it to discover, become acquainted with, and narrate the city. In this light, the promenade creates a newly individualized and subjective relationship between the stroller and the city. This transformation of the stroller's appreciation for and perception of the city was made possible by the establishment of a new social role: the urban stroller. For Barbier, walking becomes an individual pursuit. Barbier's journal thus demonstrates how a literary source can be used to understand the transformation of social practice and of the urban landscape in eighteenth-century Paris.
- Subjects
FRANCE; PARIS (France); ESSAYS; BARBIER, Edmond-Jean-Francois, 1689-1771; WALKING in literature; EIGHTEENTH century; SOCIAL history; REIGN of Louis XV, France, 1715-1774; BIOGRAPHY (Literary form)
- Publication
French Historical Studies, 2010, Vol 33, Issue 2, p201
- ISSN
0016-1071
- Publication type
Essay
- DOI
10.1215/00161071-2009-025