Ο flâneur: θεωρητικές μεταμορφώσεις μιας παρισινής φιγούρας

Abstract

This discussion focuses on the figure of the flâneur, who appears in Baudelaire's metropolitan poems as an image for the modern artistic consciousness and was analyzed by Walter Benjamin as a key phenomenon of modernity. My aim, here, is to offer a review of the various and wide ranging uses of the concept in 20th century critical discourse, especially in the field of gender and cultural studies. More specifically, I focus on three moments of this discussion. These are: First, Benjamin's transformation of the stroller of the 19th-century Parisian arcades into a metaphor for a style of observing and experiencing the modern city and as an archetype for the consumerist mode of being. Second, a line of inquiry developed by feminist scholars, who note that moving through public spaces has emerged as a male practice and question the extent to which a female flânerie is possible. Finally, the more recent connections of flânerie with activities that involve the perception of fleeting and transitory impressions, such as those offered by the cinema, television, the shopping mall, the spectacle of the postmodern city, or even the Internet.