And yet They Move: The Flâneuse as a Theme-character

Abstract

Nowadays, it is not uncommon to know about artists from many contexts that describe their walking as a contemporary way of flânerie after the nineteenth-century historical and literary figure of the flâneur. More than a century later, some female walkers are interested in naming themselves flâneuses, endowing this character with new values in relation to their own gender, time, and context. I propose that the flâneur became a character and that his consecutive figurations and characterizations made possible his continuity in the artistic imaginary giving place to new appropriations, variations, and interpretations. At the beginning of the text, some of the difficulties we encounter when trying to define the flaneur will be pointed out, and certain debates about the existence (or inexistence) of the flâneuse will be mentioned. We will also bring up a couple of current examples of walking women to recognize how they become part of the tradition to which the flaneur belongs, as well as talk about the forms, problems, topics, and desires that they introduce to this concept when they propose themselves as flâneuses. For that, Luz Aurora Pimentel’s proposals on theme-value and theme-character will be fundamental, because they allow us to recognize how the trace of the flâneur is present, what his contemporary modes are, and how they incorporate debates on gender, city, and its protagonists, inhabitants, and walkers.