The art of taking a walk : flanerie, literature, and film in Weimar culture
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Bibliographic Information
The art of taking a walk : flanerie, literature, and film in Weimar culture
（Princeton paperbacks）
Princeton University Press, c1999
- : pbk
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Note
Includes bibliographical references (p. [265]-279) and index
Description and Table of Contents
- Volume
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: pbk ISBN 9780691002385
Description
Anke Gleber examines one of the most intriguing and characteristic figures of European urban modernity: the observing city stroller, or flaneur. In an age transformed by industrialism, the flaneur drifted through city streets, inspired and repelled by the surrounding scenes of splendor and squalor. Gleber examines this often elusive figure in the particular contexts of Weimar Germany and the intellectual sphere of Walter Benjamin, with whom the concept of flanerie is often associated. She sketches the European influences that produced the German flaneur and establishes the figure as a pervasive presence in Weimar culture, as well as a profound influence on modern perceptions of public space. The book begins by exploring the theory of literary flanerie and the technological changes--street lighting, public transportation, and the emergence of film--that gave a new status to the activities of seeing and walking in the modern city. Gleber then assesses the place of flanerie in works by Benjamin, Siegfried Kracauer, and other representatives of Weimar literature, arts, and theory.
She draws particular attention to the works of Franz Hessel, a Berlin flaneur who argued that flanerie is a "reading" of the city that perceives passersby, streets, and fleeting impressions as the transitory signs of modernity. Gleber also examines connections between flanerie and Weimar film, and discusses female flanerie as a means of asserting female subjectivity in the public realm. The book is a deeply original and searching reassessment of the complex intersections among modernity, vision, and public space.
Table of Contents
PrefaceAcknowledgmentsAbbreviationsPt. 1Literature, Culture, TheoryCh. 1Walking Texts: Toward a Theory of Literary Flanerie3Ch. 2The City of Modernity: Shifting Perspectives, Urban Transitions23Ch. 3Passages of Flanerie: Kracauer and Benjamin43Pt. 2Hessel in BerlinCh. 4The Art of Walking: Reflections of Berlin63Ch. 5Secret Berlin, A Junk Store of Happiness85Ch. 6Fragments of Flanerie109Pt. 3Flanerie and FilmCh. 7A Short Phenomenology of Flanerie129Ch. 8Flanerie, or The Redemption of Visual Reality151Pt. 4Female FlanerieCh. 9Women on the Screens and Streets of Modernity: In Search of the Female Flaneur171Ch. 10Weimar Women, Walkers, Writers: Irmgard Keun and Charlotte Wolff191Notes215Bibliography265Index281
- Volume
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ISBN 9780691012223
Description
This is a study of one of the characteristic figures of European urban modernity - the observing city stroller, of flaneur. The text examines these figures in the context of Weimar Germany and the intellectual sphere of Walter Benjamin, with whom the concept of flanerie is often associated. The author sketches the European influences that produced the German flaneur, and establishes the figure as a pervasive presence in Weimar culture, as well as a profound influence on modern perceptions of public space. The theory of literary flanerie and the technological changes - street lighting, public transportation - that gave a new status to the activities of sightseeing and walking in the modern city, are also examined in the book, and the place of flanerie in the works of various writers is considered.
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