Flâneuse #02
Flâneuse #01
Created as a reflection and response to my experience of the third covid-19 lockdown.
The flâneur to the Flâneuse
Whilst researching the concept of the flâneur, it was quickly apparent that this word exclusively described the experience of men. This French noun, Flâneur, refers to a male stroller or saunterer who wanders the city in order to experience it. The term was coined in the nineteenth century by the French poet, Charles Baudelaire. He used the word, Flâneur, to identify a ‘dilettante observer’ of modern urban life in his book, The Painter of Modern Life (1863). This newly created identity was used by many impressionist painters, such as Renoir, Degas, Manet, and Caillebotte, to attempt to make the experience of modernity vivid. This character was also adopted by Situationists in the twentieth century. Situationists comprised of mainly avant-garde artists and political theorists who were passionate about social revolution. These artists were linked to movements such as Dadaism and Surrealism.
However, the experience shown in literature and art solely focuses on the male gaze. Thus, it is evident that the construction of the male flâneur, lies in conjunction with common feelings around gender at this time, as women are presented solely as a spectacle for the man. It goes without saying that this formation of femininity, by predominantly white men, is not a novel concept within the realms of literature and art. Hence, Further upholding male dominance and enhancing exclusionary fixed gender norms.
However, in 1985 Janet Wolff coined a new term ‘Flâneuse’ in an article titled ‘The invisible Flaneuse: Women and the literature of modernity’, where she discusses the absence of female representation amongst literature; especially linking to the works of George Simmel with his concept of the stranger, as well as the male domination of the flâneur. Here, the creation of the flâneuse attempts to create a new space to explore femininity within urban life. Hence, I will focus my discussion on women within modernity as her matrix of observation is completely different from the perspective of the flâneur.
This word resonates with me, reminding me of all my London wonders; without purpose or direction. I wanted to create a space to explore this concept further as it’s something I thought about a lot on these strolls. These aimless walks gave me a sense of clarity and grounded me in strange covid days and continue to do so as life slowly picks up pace again. They give me a breath of fresh air; metaphorically and literally.
Looking at ‘Street Haunting’ by Virginia Woolf
Reading Street Haunting: A London Adventure (1930) by Virginia Woolf gave me an overwhelming sense of calmness as I visualised a person sauntering through dusky London streets; without real purpose. I resonate with this nostalgic feeling of wandering streets surrounded by stillness. This reminds me of my aimless walks during the third lockdown in the early months of 2021. Virginia Woolf talks about how she walks to buy a lead pencil, whereas I walked to find peace in these weird months.
In Street Haunting, Woolf discusses how she observed people through windows, she saw these as openings into people’s lives, saying, ‘We are in danger of digging deeper than the eye approves’. But this thought is quickly pushed aside and replaced with an overbearing curiosity about the people who pass her on these evenings. Woolf illustrates how the ‘eye has this strange property: it rests only on beauty; like a butterfly, it seeks colour and basks in warmth’. Whilst I wandered through dusky, empty streets I found that my eye, too, rested on weird, but wonderful things. They tried to seek beauty wherever they could; desperate to land on something to distract me from the strange world.
Empty chairs with weeds growing through the panels of wood. Gardens of overgrown plants, with vines twisting around cracked windows. Cardboard boxes with strange household appliances, discarded without thought for an unknown stranger to take.
Whereas Woolf’s eyes settled on people, mine found comfort in things as I sauntered through these decelerated streets. Virginia describes women leaning on balcony railings and slinky cats strolling on the top of high untouchable walls; ‘A cat creeps along the garden wall. Love-making is going on sibilantly, seductively in the darker places of the room behind thick green curtains.’ I resonate in the way that Woolf talks about unspoken bonds made with strangers as she walked, ‘In this random miscellaneous company we may rub against some complete stranger who will, with luck, turn into the best friend we have in the world’.
