Class #11: Open City 1/2 ENGL 10: Global Fictions Ask me about majoring in English! jjjeon@uci.edu
The Flâneur
The Flâneur
What you need to know about the Flâneur for Open City 1. The flaneur is a figure of contradiction: Passionate about what he sees, but a detached observer. Away from home, but always at home everywhere. Active in walking, but idle in loafing, a leisure activity. 2. The flâneur s movement creates anachrony: he travels urban space, the space of modernity, but is forever looking to the past. (Kirsten Seale) 3. From this point of view of anachrony, the flaneur bears witness to modernity, and the history of its emergence. 4. Through the figure of the flaneur, we can begin to understand the impact of the modern city on the human psyche. 5. The flaneur is a figure of political contradiction: (e.g. Arcades/shopping malls). The crowd was the veil from behind which the familiar city as phantasmagoria beckoned to the flâneur. In it, the city was now landscape, now a room. And both of these went into the construction of the department store, which made use of flânerie itself in order to sell goods. The department store was the flâneur's final coup. As flâneurs, the intelligensia came into the market place. As they thought, to observe it but in reality it was already to find a buyer. In this intermediary stage [...] they took the form of the bohème. To the uncertainty of their economic position corresponded the uncertainty of their political function. Walter Benjamin, "Paris: the capital of the nineteenth century" (1935)
Walking in Open City Julius as flaneur Scanned with CamScanner Scanned with CamScanner
Julius as flâneur in Open City 1. The flaneur is a figure of contradiction: Passionate about what he sees, but a detached observer. Away from home, but always at home everywhere. Active in walking, but idle in loafing, a leisure activity. 2. The flâneur s movement creates anachrony: he travels urban space, the space of modernity, but is forever looking to the past. (Kirsten Seale) 3. From this point of view of anachrony, the flaneur bears witness to modernity, and the history of its emergence. 4. Through the figure of the flaneur, we can begin to understand the impact of the modern city on the human psyche. 5. The flaneur is a figure of political contradiction: (e.g. Arcades/shopping malls). The crowd was the veil from behind which the familiar city as phantasmagoria beckoned to the flâneur. In it, the city was now landscape, now a room. And both of these went into the construction of the department store, which made use of flânerie itself in order to sell goods. The department store was the flâneur's final coup. As flâneurs, the intelligensia came into the market place. As they thought, to observe it but in reality it was already to find a buyer. In this intermediary stage [...] they took the form of the bohème. To the uncertainty of their economic position corresponded the uncertainty of their political function. Walter Benjamin, "Paris: the capital of the nineteenth century" (1935)
Julius as flaneur/migrant Julius is a flaneur of the world rather than of the city; or Julius is a flaneur in the age of globalization. Walking around the city in the manner of the flaneur is understood to be analogous to moving around the world in the manner of a migrant. The flaneur thus becomes re-imagined as the migrant.
Julius as political contradiction Julius is NOT Teju Cole. Julius is a figure of ambivalence. JULIUS IS AS MUCH AN OBJECT OF SCRUTINY IN THIS NOVEL AS ARE THE SITES HE VIEWS AND THE PEOPLE HE MEETS.
Julius as flaneur/migrant is a political contradiction that helps examine today s complex politics. This I want to suggest then is the big payoff for linking Julius to the historical figure of the flaneur. Julius both observes and embodies the complex politics of the present in the manner of the flaneur who seems to maintain a objective detachment, but invariably becomes part of the scene.
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