This course focuses on French literature, culture, and society in the latter part of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. It introduces students to early modernism in French poetry and prose, while presenting parallels in art and architecture. Beginning with such poets as Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Verlaine, and Mallarmé, it shows how the concerns of the symbolist poets and their precursors are reflected in Impressionist art. Apollinaire's poetry is examined in relation to early twentieth century society and developing art forms such as cubism and surrealism. Novelists Marcel Proust and André Gide are also studied as founding figures of modernism.