The StrangerFlâneuseand the Aesthetics of Pedestrianism

What is it about?

This article discusses the importance of bodily presence in cities, how it is affected by race and gender, and how this is represented insistently in contemporary novels from Canada, Australia and the UK, despite contemporary connectivity, through which supposedly the virtual world supersedes the physical. it demonstrates how, now that (multicultural) difference in cities is the norm, the Modernism figure of the 'invisible', detached flâneur, who observes the city in his walks, is no longer possible, and has been replaced by an embodied pedestrian, a gendered, located participant in the city, with no pretense to universality or neutrality.

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Why is it important?

It defines a new literary urban figure, the pedestrian, in opposition to the consecrated Modernist flâneur. The pedestrian is appropriate for a 21st century perspective, which cannot sustain the claims to universality that Modernists sustained for white, male authors and characters. 'Pedestrianism' describes a different, embodied, sentient, participant manner of exploring, writing and living the urban.The article demonstrates its relevance through figures of 'pedestrians' contained in contemporary novels in English.