When the flâneur becomes the city

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Date
2022
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Publisher
Université De Larbi Ben M’hidi Oum EL Bouaghi
Abstract
The present research highlights the dimensions of the human experience in the modernist city taking the figure of the flâneur as a study sample, for its importance in making the urban space. It studies and analyses Teju Cole's Open City from a psychogeographical lens providing its different characteristics such as the dérive and the détournement. The work focuses especially on the ever-changing gaze of the flâneur, and by extension, the changes which occur on the figure since its efflorescence in Baudelaire's and Benjamin's works. It shows, further, the importance of the flâneur as a historical figure in tracing New York's history. Furthermore, it argues that the flâneur is an example of resistance against the foundations of a capitalist cosmopolitan city. Finally, this research argues that Teju Cole's flâneur not only resembles the 19th century flâneur in many aspects but also leads, implicitly, to the foundation that the characters of the flâneur and the city are melted to be one.
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Keywords
The flâneur, the City, Psychogeography
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