De Zwarte Zone rond de Lichtstad

The Black Zone around the City of light. Roaming around the slums of Paris

This article examines articles and letters written by the Dutch travel journalist and lecturer Mary Pos (1904-1987) who visited Paris in 1934 and 1937. What was her motivation to explore and report on the ‘slums’ of the capital city? Which details and figures of speech does she employ to represent the Parisian poor? Was Pos one of the ‘slummers’ who, as argued by Dürr and Jaffe (2012), produced not only cliché and schematic images, but also more nuanced and positive portraits of the inhabitants of poor neighborhoods? In order to be able to answer these questions I will zoom in on Pos’ depiction of the ‘zonards’, residents of the infamous Black Zone.