USF gives students opportunity to visit Paris
From the time of Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin, Americans have visited Paris and felt compelled to write about it. Still today Americans are drawn to "the capital of the world," and University of St. Francis English professor Randy Chilton plans to share it with his students this spring in a new class entitled, Americans in Paris 2005.
Chilton and his wife, Katie, of Joliet have traveled to France 12 times since the late 1960s. For the last two summers, he has studied the French language in Paris. Last summer, he spent four weeks studying in the Sorbonne Extension program. "I am not yet fluent," said Chilton, "but I can get along pretty well and I continue to study at the Alliance Francaise in Chicago."
Students going to Paris with Chilton will examine fiction, poetry, essays, and films that represent Paris, especially those produced by American writers and film makers for American audiences (but also some French texts in translation). When writers describe places, they often reveal as much about themselves as they do about the place being described. "When the writer is American, and when the American is in Paris, the picture can be especially revealing of what we think about ourselves as well as the French," said Chilton.
This class will explore through reading and writing not only what it means to be French or Parisian, but what it means to be American. Participants will be asked to write about some familiar places at home (a church, a restaurant, a park), and then about similar places in Paris.
"Students will gain cultural enrichment, a broader world view, and great fun," said Chilton. "When you leave home for a foreign country, two things happen—you learn about the foreign country, and you also learn more about home, because a successful trip makes everything different."
"Looking at France’s history, it may seem to be very chaotic, with its bloody revolutions, wars against foreign invaders, and in the distant past assassinations and royal intrigues," said Chilton. "And yet, as culturally and politically diverse as it is, there is a core belief nationally of what it means to be truly French, which is at least as deep and strong as our own belief of what it means to be American." Americans who like France (and historically, most Americans have liked France very much) like it for one of the ways it is least American: the French don’t work as hard as we do, but they enjoy life much more."
The Chiltons have been able to see much of France over the last few years, and have talked with and observed the French in many different contexts. They have talked with the French people about the joys (six weeks of vacation a year and free health care) and sorrows (unemployment and strikes) of their social system. They have learned the pleasures of the French daily rhythms--the daily markets and the evening meal that often don’t begin in Paris until 9 p.m.--and continue to be awed by the French cultural heritage, their cathedrals and chateaux and museums.
"Americans often think of the French as snobbish or officious," said Chilton, "but our experience has been almost entirely otherwise – they have been friendly, extremely helpful, hospitable and self-deprecating."
"We have been helped by strangers who have gone out of their way to find an address for us in Paris or change our tire, or in one case, lift our car out of a ditch," said Chilton. "We have learned to love the country very deeply. We always look forward to returning to France because we know we will be served well, stimulated intellectually and we will learn more about ourselves."
To learn more about Chilton’s Americans in Paris 2005 class from March 3-12, call (815) 740-3454.
The University of St. Francis, at 500 Wilcox St. in Joliet, serves more than 4,300 students nationwide. The university offers more than 60 areas of undergraduate study and 10 graduate programs.