ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book. The book explores how and why the same space came to be imagined in such an astonishing variety of ways. It analyses representations of the zone from its inception in the early 1840s to the beginning of its death throes in the early 1940s in literature, fine art, journalism, photography, cinema, popular song and official documents and argues that these representations often expressed concerns about broader issues such as class, gender, modernity and national identity. It explains how the zone was perceived by writers, artists and their public. The book focuses on the evolution of the zone as a metaphor and on what this suggests about conscious or unconscious collective attitudes. More generally, it aims to raise awareness of a neglected aspect of Parisian cultural history while pointing to links between current and past perceptions of the city's periphery.
