Urban and Elegant:
The Aesthetics of Living in the Modern European City
London, April – July 2017
The Public Lecture Series provides an overview of the European topography of the so-called ‘elegant world’, an imaginary community of urban origin which gradually superseded predominated social and gender norms in the timeframe between the French and the Russian Revolutions.
As early as in the 18th Century, social origin already began to lose its defining role in the social order as new groups of people rose in societies. They represented among other characteristics new wealth or a high social status acquired through meritorious service. In response, ‘soft’ social markers such as honnêteté and taste began to play a central role in defining the boundaries of elite social groups, which increasingly became imaginary communities. In the 19th Century, these newly defined social virtues and challenges turned into a widely accepted, substantial prerequisite to social life. This social pattern developed according to an aestheticised model, subsumed by the term of elegance. The transnational style of elegance arose at the very time when nationalism gained currency in many European countries. It thus articulated the ambivalent identity of European elites, who committed themselves to national ideas as well as to an emerging transnational urban culture.
Leading international academics discuss specific media, spaces, and cultural practices of the European urban elite in detail, focusing on the aesthetics of lifestyle in the imperial metropolises of London, Paris, Vienna, and Saint Petersburg, as well as in aspiring Central and Eastern European cities.
Lectures are held at two neighbouring venues on Bloomsbury Square to emphasise the cross-cultural European character of the topic: Pushkin House is hosting the first lecture and German Historical Institute London welcoming the second and third events.
Monday, 24 April 2017
Dr Olga Vainshtein, Russian State University for the Humanities, Moscow
Rules of Elegance: Russian and British Dandyism in the 19th Century
Pushkin House, 5A Bloomsbury Square, London
Music and Function room, 1st Floor
Tickets: £7 / £5
Thursday, 25 May 2017
Professor Joachim Rees, Freie Universität Berlin
Selling the Metropolis: Friedrich Justin Bertuch’s Journal „London und Paris“ and the Mediations of Elegance around 1800
German Historical Institute, 17 Bloomsbury Square, London
Seminar Room, 1st Floor
Free admission
Thursday, 6 July 2017
Professor Annegret Pelz, University of Vienna
Prince Hermann von Pueckler-Muskau‘s „Pictorial Souvenirs“ from England: Diary, Scrapbook, Panorama of Social Life
German Historical Institute, 17 Bloomsbury Square, London WC1A 2NJ
Seminar Room, 1st Floor
Free admission
The lectures begin at 6:30 pm, followed by a Q&A session and a wine reception.
The Public Lecture Series “Urban and Elegant” is organised and introduced by Dr Anna Ananieva, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at Queen Mary University of London.
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 655429.