Kristi V. Shanahan
It is through the spoken word that we most easily communicate with others. Or is it? As the world becomes smaller, as the old cliché reminds us, our interest and need to communicate with others outside of our own milieu becomes more important - necessary, really. That’s where my involvement comes in. My first love is the study and teaching of the French language. This is just a hook, however, because what is language without culture, without history, without an understanding of the needs and yearnings of a different people? We cannot appreciate what makes us different, unique, if we only communicate with words. We want to see, to taste, to know a different culture, as well as speak its language. Only then will the differing culture become clearer, more evident and accessible to us.
In addition to my French courses, I also teach an art history course, which has examined several different genres of French painting and sculpture: still life, genre, Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism, Expressionism and 20th Century art. Although I am new at this undertaking (this will by my third year teaching the course) I have always included the study of art in all my classes, in tandem with historical events in the lives of the French people. This is the purpose of this course unit: to look at how the events before and during World War II and the Occupation of France, specifically from the late 30s to 1944, influenced the visual art of French and European artists living in France during that time.
The expression of art, of visual art, has always played a key role in the understanding of a culture. In the twentieth century, the forces of two world wars and their aftermaths magnified this role. How was this influence manifested in art? How can art inform us about our strengths and weaknesses? How does art contribute to our ultimate survival? More specifically, how did the culture and tyranny of Nazi Germany affect the lives of the artists living in France, before, during and after the Occupation?