ABSTRACT
Chapter 13 is the first of a series of chapters on the representation of city squares in literature after the opening of squares had shattered old frames of perception and understanding. Place de la Concorde is one of the first and most important of these open squares. The construction of Place de la Concorde is described as related to the cult of light and rationality during the Enlightenment and put into perspective by writings of Denis Diderot, Francois Voltaire, and Abbé Laugier. The modern opening of the square coincided with the invention of the panorama, and it is suggested that what made this device so popular, in fact a true mass medium, in the 19th century was its ability to give an all-encompassing, visual representation of the modern city. Among writers who took inspiration from the panorama in their literary representation of Paris and of Place de la Concorde, the chapter points at Honoré de Balzac, Théophile Gautier, and Émile Zola.
