This course introduces students to narratives, fictional and theoretical, of the urban: from Walter Benjamin to short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Edgar Allan Poe and Hermann Melville, and from Nella Larsen to Edwidge Danticat and Ling Ma. Zooming in on the figure of the flaneur as both character and as metaphorization of urbanity, we will talk about the visuality of the city and its tropes. Emphasizing the flaneur’s role as a detached, highly individualized mobile spectator, this seminar highlights how the flaneur’s perambulations may symbolize what is sometimes understood as the modern urban experience. Critically interrogating the scope of both concepts – that of a singular modern urban experience and that of the flaneur as its paradigmatic representation – we will question the concepts’ generalizing claim, discussing the premises inherent to the flaneur in respect to gender, race, and class. Following the flaneur through city streets, we will thus ask what constitutes the urban experience and urban fiction.
- Course owner: Antje Dallmann