Global Autofictional Flânerie

Global Autofictional Flânerie Shaj Mathew (bio) I He is a walking paradox: loner who desires the crowd, “a prince everywhere rejoices in his incognito,” spectator casts off air of detachment, skeptic can experience states childlike wonder, “an ‘I’ with an insatiable appetite for ‘non-I.’”1 More gaze than body, he phantom arcade, mirror as vast crowd itself . kaleidoscope gifted consciousness” (Baudelaire, “Painter,” 9). Who this person? “Observer, philosopher —call him what you will,” flâneur modern man par excellence, urban stroller will always be encountered, en passant, act capturing “the ephemeral, fugitive, contingent”—that is, contradictory, enigmatic, and elusive condition otherwise known modernity (13).2 This origin story has long dominated critical discussions flânerie, term take to signify way moving through space well first-person narrative form that documents movement. The flâneur’s vein solitary, melancholic, aimless walking—typically coeval modernization global city—has become synonymous strolls nineteenth-century Paris. Even recent efforts chart spread flânerie into other cities have rehearsed particular story, looking Parisian initial tradition contemporary walkers rail against or continue in.3 rhyme between Paris, endured many reasons, but it generally attests success Charles [End Page 219] Baudelaire afterlife writings Walter Benjamin. Rare treatment streetwalking does not acknowledge Baudelaire’s legendary typology “The Painter Modern Life” (1863).4 And if were enough, association flâneur, France, was enshrined century later, when Benjamin hailed Paris promised land flâneur” unfinished yet exhaustive index city, Arcades Project.5 article aims trouble these pairs. It constructs wider genealogy late nineteenth early twentieth centuries, beginning two figures sauntered streets Tehran: fokoli ( ) farangimaab ). By foregrounding literal fictional wanderings types, locates world flâneur—who forms heart article—in non-Western tradition; doing so, avoids contributing Eurocentric understanding capital modernity, one posits point departure all readings flâneur. These expand canon do deny richness Benjamin—only their singularity. Looking thus contributes theoretical project “provincializing Europe” by identifying “actual cosmopolitan life.”6 In process, restores its untapped complexity, capaciousness, origins. ubiquitous feature urbanization centuries—a practice ambulation focalization ultimately enabled critique modernization. If phenomenon during period, so too modernity; dialectical, product asymmetrical exchanges ideas, fashions, languages “East” “West.” light composite view use word “flânerie” describe corpus includes texts from South may appear curious, even misguided. Why employ “Western” treat “non-Western” objects, potentially ramifying problems Eurochronology process?7 first reason legibility: protagonist life already name, also hinges on second contention: just because coined France mean originated there. To believe commit genealogical fallacy. Thus, while fokolis farangimaabs never used themselves, lives representations exemplified...