Full Description
The flaneur is usually identified as the man of the crowd' of Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Baudelaire, and as one of the heroes of Walter Benjamin's Arcades project. The flaneur's activities of strolling and loitering are mentioned increasingly frequently in sociology, cultural studies and art history, but rarely is the debate developed further. The Flaneur is a series of original essays, each providing new and exciting histories of the origins of the flaneur and flanerie and each written by a leading figure in the field. The book raises such questions as: Do we have to wald the streets to indulge in flanerie ?', How is the city a gendered space?' and How might flanerie be possible from the safety of dining tables?' Important light is cast on the significance and future of flanerie , and questions are raised about the current status of sociological and cultural studies.
Contents
Notes on Contributors 1. Introduction 2. The Flaneur On and Off the Streets of Paris 3. The Flaneur: From Spectator to Representation 4. Fancy Footwork: Walter Benjamin's Notes on Flanerie 5. The Flaneur in Social Theory 6. Rene and John in Paris: The Studio and the Street in the 1900s 7. Desert Spectacular 8. Digesting the Modern Diet: Gastro-Porn, Fast Food and Panic Eating 9. The Hopeless Game of Flanerie
