Below findings of interesting quotes and readings are in the frame of our ongoing research on the concept of FLANEUR and its application to the context in Shanghai.
They have been compiled together with Anne Warr, the founder of Walkshanghai, who is currently (April 2012) a PHD candidate at UNSW (University of NSW, Australia), her topic being "Women and the Modern City: Shanghai 1930s". Her study includes an examination of the themes, Cosmopolitanism, Internationalism, Feminism and The Flaneur.
“The flaneur lived on the boulevards, and made the streets and cafes of Paris his drawing room. Like the bohemian, the flaneur often lived on his literary wits: the turbulence of the fast-expanding cities gave birth in Paris, as in London, to a whole new journalistic literature of vignettes, anecdotes and "travelers' tales'. The difference between the bohemian and the flaneur was that while the bohemian had
been passionately emotional, the flaneur was a detached observer. He caught the fleeting, fragmentary quality of modern urban life, and, as a rootless outsider, he also identified with all the marginals that urban society produced. (p. 54)”
(Elizabeth Wilson, "The Sphinx in the City: Urban Life, the Control of Disorder, and Women")
“Have you ever reflected on everything contained in the term ‘flanerie’, this most enchanting word which is revered by the poets...? Going on infinite investigations through the streets and promenades; drifting along, with your nose in the wind, with both hands in your pockets, and with an umbrellas under your arm, as befits any open-minded spirit; walking along, with serendipity, without pondering where to and without urging to hurry...stopping in front of stores to regard their images, at street corners to read their signs, by the bouquinistes’ stands to touch their old books...giving yourself over, captivated and enraptured, with all your senses and all your mind, to the spectacle.”
(Victor Fournel, Ce qu’on voit dans les rues de Paris)
Please find more ressources, quotes and a book-list here:
Art of Walking ressource paper
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