WEEK 2: THE EIFFEL TOWER AND HISTORICAL BEINGS

Powerpoint Lecture
What is a Myth?
❖ For Aristotle, “mythos” simply meant “plot”
❖ In his Republic, Plato did not want plots or stories, because they were not ‘true’
❖ However, Plato then created his own myths, such as the “Allegory of the Cave”; in
other words, creating myths seems to be hard-wired into the human way of
apprehending the world
❖ A myth is usually a symbolic narrative that ostensibly has some basis in ‘fact’ or
‘history’, or serves as a guide for ways of living
❖ “Myths are seldom fantasy constructions; more frequently they are the backbones of
practical ways of living realistically” (Doty 3)
❖ Myths help to create world views about places, histories, people, etc
❖ “Myths serve as stand-ins for serious truths of Western civilization” (Doty 2)
❖ Originally, myths were closely tied to religion and spirituality
❖ The Bible is an interesting case; some people see it as a mythic narrative, others
read it as true and fact-based
❖ From the Enlightenment onwards (the 18th century), a hard and fast distinction was
made between myth (mythos) and reason (logos)
❖ “In Enlightenment rationalism the logical/rational became considered the Truth
machine, and myth was associated with falsity or fiction” (Doty 7)
❖ Today, however, there is an acknowledgment that the existence of a timeless,
transcendent Truth is itself a kind of myth
❖ The structure and meaning of myths therefore migrates over time, depending on a
culture’s worldview
❖ Myths play a key role in people’s sense of belonging and identity
❖ At times, they are used in problematic ways to develop national narratives of
belonging e.g. the Nazi myth of the Aryan race
❖ Myths can be disturbing:
➢ e.g. The Greek myth of Prometheus, who gets his liver plucked out by a bird
every day for having stolen fire from the Gods
❖ Or they can be comforting and familiar:
➢ e.g. American apple pie

Modern Mythology
❖ In the 20th century, Sigmund Freud used Greek myths, specifically that of Oedipus
Rex, to explain human sexuality
❖ Karl Jung also argued that since similar myths can be found in different cultures (e.g.
the flood of Noah’s Arc), myths represented “universal archetypes”
❖ Claude Levi-Strauss argued that the human mind was made up of fixed mental
structures based on binary opposites (good/evil, etc) that produce mythic
structures
 ❖ In the 1950s, Roland Barthes published a famous collection of essays, Mythologies,
where he explores modern myths
❖ Barthes argues that we are constantly creating myths through movies, popular
culture, advertising, etc
❖ In Mythologies, Barthes explores the myths created around topics as diverse as red
wine (myths of masculinity) and laundry detergent (myths of cleanliness)
➢ His essay on the Eiffel Tower is one of these myths
❖ Why do you think myths are so powerful?
➢ Paradoxically, although most of us know that myths are cultural narratives,
they often feel ‘true’ or ‘real’, which is the source of their power

Barthes on Myths
❖ Barthes believes anything can become a myth
➢ “Since myth is a type of speech, everything can be a myth provided it is
conveyed by a discourse.” (Mythologies, 109)
➢ “Myth is not defined by the object of its message, but by the way in which it
utters this message.” (109)
❖ For Barthes, myths are flexible and malleable, rather than fixed and stable
➢ “In actual fact, the knowledge contained in a mythical concept is confused,
made of yielding, shapeless associations … it is not at all an abstract, purified
essence; it is a formless, unstable, nebulous condensation, whose unity and
coherence are above all due to its function.” (119)
❖ The danger and power of myth is that it appears innocent and neutral, when it fact it
is always ideological and motivated
➢ “For this interpellant speech is at the same time a frozen speech: at the
moment of reaching me, it suspends itself, turns away and assumes the look
of a generality: it stiffens, it makes itself look neutral and innocent.” (125)
❖ Myth, for Barthes, is a way of seeing the world
➢ “Myth hides nothing and flaunts nothing: it distorts; myth is neither a lie nor
a confession: it is an inflexion.” (129)
❖ Myth is all-consuming and can never be vanquished
➢ “It thus appears that it is extremely difficult to vanquish myth from the
inside: for the very effort one makes in order to escape its stranglehold
becomes in its turn the prey of myth: myth can always, as a last resort, signify
the resistance which is brought to bear against it.” (135)
Facts
❖ The Eiffel Tower was built 1887-89 for the 1889 World’s Fair, to celebrate the
centenary of the French Revolution of 1789
❖ At 324 meters tall, it is the tallest structure in Paris
❖ It is the most visited paid monument in the world (9.91million visitors in 2015)
❖ It was an engineering feat, thought by many to be impossible to build
❖ The artistic community objected to it, calling it “useless and monstrous,” “a giddy,
ridiculous tower,” and “the hateful column of bolted sheet metal”
 ❖ The Tower was supposed to have a lifespan of 20 years, and to be dismantled in
1909
❖ However, it proved useful for communication purposes and remained in place
❖ The Tower now defines the city of Paris

Barthes and the Eiffel Tower

❖ With the Eiffel Tower, Barthes ‘performs’ his theory of myth
❖ Barthes shows how the Eiffel Tower has come to represent Paris
❖ What is the first thing he notes about the Eiffel Tower?
➢ “wherever you are, whatever the landscape of roofs, domes, or branches
separating you from it, the Tower is there.” (3)
❖ Barthes calls the tower “friendly”
❖ The Tower is not just there for Parisians, but for the entire world (3)
➢ “it belongs to the universal language of travel” (4)
❖ One of the Tower’s strengths is that it can have multiple significations
➢ “the symbol of Paris, of modernity, of communication, of science or of the
nineteenth century, rocket, stem, derrick, phallus, lightning rod or insect,
confronting the great itineraries of our dreams it is the inevitable sign.” (4)
❖ For Barthes, the Tower functions as a multiple sign system
➢ “This pure—virtually empty—sign—is ineluctable, because it means
everything.” (4)
➢ “the Tower attracts meaning, the way a lightning rod attracts thunderbolts”
(5)
❖ The Tower is therefore itself and not itself; it morphs into whatever people invest in
it as a sign
❖ One of the Tower’s key characteristics, Barthes argues, is its uselessness
➢ Unlike a palace or a cathedral, the Eiffel Tower was built without purpose,
except to prove it could be built
➢ This was a new way of thinking about architecture
➢ Although it came to have certain uses (telecommunications, meteorology,
etc), that is not the source of its mythology
❖ The Tower’s practical uses are incommensurate with its mythic appeal
➢ For Barthes, it is the Tower’s lack of use value that makes it “live in men’s
imagination” (7)
❖ People fill the Tower with their own dreams and aspirations

Looking and Being Seen

❖ Barthes writes, “The Tower looks at Paris” (8)
➢ Paradoxically, looking from the Tower means it is no longer part of the Paris
landscape
❖ For Barthes, the Tower gives the viewer a kind of power over the city
❖ In 1889, seeing Paris laid out like a panorama was a new experience, like flying over
the city
❖ This new sense of space also produces a new sense of time
 ➢ “to perceive Paris from above is infallibly to imagine a history” (11)
➢ “through the astonishment of space, it plunges into the mystery of time, lets
itself be affected by a kind of spontaneous anamnesis*: it is duration itself
which becomes panoramic.” (11)
➢ (*anamnesis: the remembering of things from a supposed previous
existence)
❖ The Tower, along with Notre-Dame cathedral, enables Paris to be visually encased
between past and present
❖ The Tower, for Barthes, enables us to see Paris in a particular way, through space
and time
➢ “the Tower is merely the witness, the gaze which discreetly fixes, with its
slender signal, the whole structure—geographical, historical, and social—of
Paris space.” (13)
❖ Unlike other tourist monuments, the Tower also has no inside
➢ “How can you be enclosed within emptiness, how can you visit a line?” (15)
➢ Barthes calls the Tower, “this empty and depthless monument” (15)
➢ The fact that the Tower blurs the relationship between inside and outside is
part of its appeal
❖ While the Tower seems like a smooth structure from far away, from close-up one
can see the mechanics of how it was built
❖ The Tower reveals itself as a structure in a way most buildings do not
➢ “the surprise of seeing how this rectilinear form, which is consumed in every
corner of Paris as a pure line, is composed of countless segments, interlinked,
crossed, divergent.” (15)
❖ Barthes concludes that the Tower is its own world
➢ “the Tower can live on itself: one can dream there, eat there, observe there,
understand there, marvel there, shop there.” (17)

Early History
❖ Paris was first inhabited by the Parisii (people of the cauldron)
❖ The Parisii were a Gaulish (Celtic) tribe during the Iron Age, who lived by the Seine
river from the 3rd century BCE to the Roman era
❖ In 52 BCE, the Parisii were conquered by the Romans, who founded the Gallo-
Roman city called Lutetia (place near the swamp)
❖ The name ‘Paris’ only appears for the first time in the 3rd century CE

Paris as a Medieval City

❖ There are two buildings that represent Medieval Paris
➢ The Cathedral of Notre Dame (12th-13th centuries)
❖ Notre Dame was built on the site of a Roman temple to Jupiter
➢ The first stone was laid in 1163, and the building finished in 1330 (170 years
to build)
❖ The Sainte Chapelle (13th century), built by Louis IX before going off to the Seventh
Crusade
 ❖ These are two of the most beautiful buildings in Paris

Paris in Medieval Times

❖ Paris converted to Christianity around 250 CE
❖ First Christian church was dedicated to St Etienne (St Stephen)
❖ Paris grew around the Ile de la Cité (where Notre- Dame cathedral was eventually
built)
❖ 5th-8th centuries, ramparts existed around the Ile, but the left and right bank were
undefended
❖ First city walls were built in the 11th century
❖ 1190-1202, the king Philip II built the original fortress of the Louvre
❖ Medieval Parisian streets were very narrow, averaging 4 meters in width
❖ The streets of Paris stank! Animals, unwashed bodies, and animal waste were
everywhere
❖ Households would simply throw the contents of their chamber pots out the window
❖ The average house had 3 to 4 floors
❖ The streets were dangerous at night because of an absence of lights
❖ In 1328, the first official census was taken, and the population of Paris averaged
around 200,000 people
❖ By the 13th century, Paris had become one of the leading centers of learning in
Europe
❖ It had its own university on the Left Bank (to give it independence from Notre-Dame
and the Bishop of Paris)
❖ In 1253, Louis IX founded the Collège de Sorbonne (now known as the Sorbonne),
which was one of the first universities in the world
❖ The Sorbonne’s library was one of the first to arrange items alphabetically according
to title
❖ The University of Paris became the most important school of Catholic theology in
Western Europe. It included scholars such as Thomas Aquinas
❖ The Left Bank is still where students study, live and hang out, and as mentioned last
week, it is known as the Latin Quarter because of its Medieval roots

Héloise and Abélard

❖ Pierre Abélard was one of the most popular philosophers and teachers in 12 th-
century Paris
❖ In 1116, he tutored, fell for and had a romance with Héloïse, who was herself a
scholar and one of the most renowned women of letters in France
❖ Héloise became pregnant, and her uncle, who was in charge of her, insisted the
couple secretly marry
❖ After the marriage, however, the uncle, still angry with Abélard, had him castrated
as punishment for his initial sexual transgression with Héloise
❖ Abélard retreated to the monastery and became a monk, and Héloise became an
abbess
 ❖ The correspondence of Abélard and Héloïse has been preserved, and their story
retold again and again
❖ It is one of the most famous love stories in French history
❖ Their grave lies in the Père-Lachaise cemetery

English Occupation of Paris and Joan of Arc

❖ From 1337 onwards, France and England were embroiled in the Hundred Years’
War, which was a war of succession concerning who should occupy the French
throne
❖ By the late 1420s, most of Northern France was under English occupation
❖ Joan of Arc was an illiterate young peasant girl from the Vosges in Northeast France
❖ In 1429, she claimed to have received visions from the Saints asking her to help the
French king, Charles VII, liberate the French from the English
❖ Charles VII accepted her help, and sent Joan to the Siege of Orléans, which was lifted
within 9 days. Other victories followed
❖ However, in May 1431, Joan was captured, put on trial by the English, and on 14
May 1431 she was burned at the stake. She was 19 years old
❖ In 1456, Joan of Arc was declared a martyr of France
❖ In 1803, she was declared a national symbol of France, and in 1920 she was
canonized as a Catholic Saint
❖ There are statues of Joan of Arc in almost every church in France

The Black Death

❖ 1348-49, the Parisians were decimated by the Bubonic plague
❖ The plague killed a quarter of the population (40,000-50,000 citizens)
❖ The plague returned 3 more times over the course of the century
❖ As we saw with COVID-19, densely populated areas are always more at risk from
pandemics

End of the Middle Ages

❖ By the mid-15th century, the Middle Ages were giving way to the Renaissance
❖ 1470, Paris developed its own printing press, which made the printed book
available, leading to a greater dissemination of knowledge
❖ Monarchs tended to live outside Paris as it was so crowded and smelly
❖ Eventually the old Louvre fortress was torn down and replaced with the current
Palais du Louvre, based on Renaissance architecture

The Beginning of Modern Paris

❖ In her essay, Joan DeJean claims that “The invention of Paris began with a bridge.”
(21)
❖ The Pont Neuf (new bridge) was important for many reasons
❖ It came to symbolize Paris in the 17th century in the way the Eiffel Tower symbolizes
Paris today
❖ One of the Pont Neuf’s distinguishing features is that it was NOT a cathedral or a
palace (21)
❖ Instead, it was a feat of technological innovation that encouraged a specific kind of
urbanity
❖ The Pont Neuf was made of stone, not wood, so it was fireproof
➢ It was “the first bridge to cross the Seine in a single span” (21)
❖ It was nearly 1,000 feet long and 75 feet wide, wider than any existing city street
(21)
❖ Instead of having houses on either side, which was the common practice, it had
broad sidewalks
❖ The Pont Neuf also connected the Right Bank to the rest of Paris
❖ Before that, the Right Bank only had the Louvre Palace as its main attraction
❖ Today it has the Champs Elysées, the Place Royale, and other important landmarks
❖ Today, the Pont Neuf is the oldest bridge in Paris
❖ What, then, inspired the current king, Henri IV, to have this bridge built?
➢ France had been at war for the last century over the Wars of Religion
between Catholics and Protestants
➢ This weakened the country and focused attention away from things like
urban planning
➢ In 1598, Henri IV signed the Edict of Nantes, establishing religious toleration
of Protestants in France
➢ A new era of peace enabled a focus on other concerns
❖ What kinds of things might a bridge symbolize, and be useful for?
➢ Henri IV presented it as “convenient” for the people of Paris
➢ It was focused on the population rather than on the aristocratic elite or the
clergy (palaces and cathedrals)
➢ The Pont Neuf was geared towards the future: commerce, urban leisure,
more efficient movement and travel
❖ How did Henri IV finance the Pont Neuf?
➢ He “levied a tax on every cask of wine brought into Paris” (23)
➢ The Pont Neuf was only the fifth bridge in Paris, and the first built in a
century
➢ In London, UK, there was only one bridge (London Bridge) over the Thames;
the second one was only built in 1750
❖ The Pont Neuf “was a feat of engineering prowess” (23)
❖ For the first time, a bridge needed to be able to carry vehicles (horse-drawn
carriages)
❖ Personal carriages were becoming increasingly numerous (and weighed much more
than people or individual horses)
❖ Where, exactly, was the Pont Neuf situated?
➢ It crossed from the Right Bank, joined the tip of the Ile de la Cité, and went on
to the Left Bank
➢ On the Ile de la Cité, at the intersection of the Pont Neuf, the elegant Place
Dauphine was built
 ➢ The bridge itself led into the broad and straight Avenue Dauphine
➢ This symmetry and space constituted the opposite of Medieval Paris
architecture
❖ There is a public statue of Henri IV in the middle of the Pont Neuf, the first public
statue in Paris
❖ It is here that it became popular for Parisians to go for a swim in the Seine
❖ The Pont Neuf also created the first instance of genuine social mixing, an event that
happened in other cities only decades later

French Society
❖ First estate: the clergy (they do not pay taxes)
❖ Second estate: the aristocracy
➢ The aristocracy of the sword, military origins, most ancient
➢ The aristocracy of the robe, administrative origins, often the ennobled
bourgeoisie, rewarded for services to the state
➢ *The aristocracy do not pay taxes
➢ *The aristocracy offers its military and administrative services to the king
➢ The clergy and aristocracy make up about 2% of the population
❖ Third estate: the rest of the population
➢ The urban bourgeoisie and the artisanal class (18%)
➢ The peasants (80%)
➢ The third estate pay all the taxes

The Pont Neuf and the Early Flâneur

❖ The Pont Neuf enabled one of the first examples of social mixing
❖ In what was a very hierarchical society, the mixing of different groups in the context
of leisure was unheard of
❖ Yet the broad layout of the Pont Neuf began affecting social habits, and how
Parisians interacted
❖ Paintings of the Pont Neuf from the 1660s show aristocrats, bourgeois, and beggars
all sharing the same space
➢ “The Pont Neuf was a great social leveler” (28)
❖ The Pont Neuf became one of the first locations where people stopped to see and to
be seen
❖ Claude Louis Berthod’s 1684 guidebook talked about the real Paris, “a place not of
marvels but of chaos and commotion” (DeJean 29)
❖ He discusses “how busy and crowded” the Pont Neuf always was, and how “one
encountered people from every rank and dressed in every possible way” (DeJean
30)
❖ The Pont Neuf’s popularity and busyness created a new reality of urban life: the
traffic jam
❖ It was also on the Pont Neuf that you could get information
❖ It was the place where information was exchanged, and where rumors spread
 ➢ C’est connu comme le Pont Neuf (“Everyone knows that already”)
❖ The Pont Neuf was not only a space of spectacle, where people observed each other
❖ It was also literally a theater space
❖ Before the first theaters in 1630s, “the Pont Neuf was the center of the Parisian
theatrical scene” (35)
❖ Actors performed on makeshift stages, and once again mixed crowds watched the
shows
❖ Aristocrats would turn their carriages into private theater boxes
❖ The Pont Neuf gave rise to street markets
❖ In the early 1600s, there were 50 bookshops on the bridge
➢ This space “gave Parisians access to the largest public library in the world”
(37)
❖ The crowded conditions on the bridge also led to a certain amount of theft
❖ The most popular theft was to steal men’s cloaks, worth hundreds of pounds
➢ A filou (a crook) is someone who “steals men’s cloaks at night” (DeJean 38)
❖ Because the Pont Neuf was the first bridge to have no houses on it, it was the first
bridge to make possible a view of the city of Paris
❖ The idea of an urban panoramic view starts with the Pont Neuf
❖ People would come to the Pont Neuf to look at the view
❖ This marks the beginning of Paris’s self-consciousness as a city ‘to be looked at’
➢ “All through the seventeenth century, Parisians and foreigners repeated that
such a view, possible nowhere else in Europe, should be a source of pride.”
(DeJean 41)
➢ Visitors called it “the most beautiful and the most magnificent view in the
entire world” (42)
➢ It was a view available nowhere else in Europe
❖ •Mommers’ painting became most popular image of seventeenth-century Paris
➢ “Technology and urban planning had thus created the notion of a cityscape,
an urban landscape, a magnificent scene made by man rather than nature”
(DeJean 42)
➢ “The Pont Neuf reinvented the bridge. It was technologically advanced, a
center for characteristically urban forms of entertainment, a social equalizer
—and essential to the process by which Paris won its reputation as a city
both beautiful and modern.” (DeJean 43)
❖ The Pont Neuf is still the longest and widest bridge in Paris (44)

Readings
Course Pack
Joan DeJean, "The Bridge Where Paris Became Modern" from How Paris Became Paris
(2014) 21-44

Roland Barthes, "The Eiffel Tower and Other Mythologies" (1979) 3-17
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