ABSTRACT
The First World War marked lull in representations of the zone, but would profoundly influence how the area was perceived over the following two decades. Numerous writers and artists turned the zone into a metaphorical Front. The zone had become a last bastion of Frenchness. It was reinforced by the redevelopment of the Parisian periphery in an international style, based on functionality and a lack of ornamentation, which threw into relief the more familiar landscape of the zone. The zone posed an increasing threat to French values as large numbers of immigrants arrived in the area and rising land values led to unbridled speculation. Revolutionary observers, including surrealists and communists, used the zone to explore the regenerative possibilities of the unconscious or of class. The most common function of the zone was to nourish the fantasy of a social utopia which effaced not only the divisive consequences of the war but also the upheavals of the entire post-Revolutionary period.
