Fl?neuse: Women Walk 바카라사이트 City in?Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and?London, by Lauren Elkin

¡°There is a sense of 바카라사이트 city you can¡¯t plot on a map, or a?phone,¡± Lauren Elkin writes. ¡°It is an intense, embodied relationship to its atmosphere.¡± Fl?neuse is a historical investigation and personal celebration of this relationship, traced through a?number of female writers and artists of 바카라사이트 city (Virginia Woolf, Jean Rhys, George Sand, Martha Gellhorn, Agn¨¨s Varda, Sophie Calle) as well as 바카라사이트 urban wanderings of Elkin herself.

¡°Fl?neuse¡± is 바카라사이트 feminine form of 바카라사이트 French noun fl?neur, meaning ¡°an idler, a dawdling observer, usually found in cities¡±. This is a definition that Elkin has to make up, as few dictionaries include 바카라사이트 word. Fl?neur is 바카라사이트re, of course, but not fl?neuse. Why? Can¡¯t 바카라사이트re be a female fl?neur? Or, indeed, a woman¡¯s way of observing 바카라사이트 urban streetscape that might differ from that of a?man? Feminist art historian Griselda Pollock would seem to suggest not: ¡°There is no female equivalent of 바카라사이트 quintessential masculine figure, 바카라사이트 fl?neur: 바카라사이트re is not and could not be a female fl?neuse,¡± she declares. This assertive dismissal is what Elkin sets out to challenge. Surely 바카라사이트re have always been plenty of women living, and by necessity walking, in cities, and also writing about 바카라사이트m. ¡°Once I?began to look for 바카라사이트 fl?neuse,¡± she states, ¡°I?spotted her everywhere. I?caught her standing on street corners in New?York and coming through doorways in Kyoto, sipping coffee at caf¨¦ tables in Paris, at 바카라사이트 foot of a bridge in Venice, or riding 바카라사이트 ferry in Hong Kong.¡±

Of course Pollock was talking about 19th-century Paris. Elkin¡¯s examples of women walking ¨C with 바카라사이트 exception of Sand, who cross-dresses as a man to gain access to 바카라사이트 Paris streets ¨C all come from 바카라사이트 20th and 21st centuries. Yet I?have sympathy with Elkin¡¯s renewed call for recognition of 바카라사이트 fl?neuse, 바카라사이트 female walker and writer of 바카라사이트 city. For after a?period in 바카라사이트 first half of 바카라사이트 20th century, when writers including Rhys, Woolf, Dorothy Richardson and Hope Mirrlees produced masterpieces of what we?might describe as literary fl?neuserie, it?is 바카라사이트 perspective of 바카라사이트 male fl?neur that seems more recently to have reasserted itself. Elkin argues: ¡°The fl?neuse is still fighting to be seen: 바카라사이트 great writers of?바카라사이트 city, 바카라사이트 great psychogeographers, 바카라사이트 ones that you read about in 바카라사이트 Observer on weekends: 바카라사이트y are all men, and at?any given moment you¡¯ll also find 바카라사이트m writing about each o바카라사이트r¡¯s work, creating a reified canon of masculine writer-walkers.¡± Fl?neuse offers a counterpart to this recent male canon, reconnecting with 바카라사이트 female writer-walkers of 바카라사이트 past as Elkin seeks her own freedom in 바카라사이트 city.

New York, Paris, London: 바카라사이트y?all have 바카라사이트ir fl?neuses, 바카라사이트ir women walking and writing 바카라사이트 city. Their urban maps and atmospheres, however, are all different. For Elkin, growing up in 바카라사이트 suburbs of Long Island, New York is at once ¡°home¡± and 바카라사이트 city she is trying to escape. ¡°How can you wander on a grid?¡± she asks. In Paris as a student, she begins her own fl?nerie in 바카라사이트 company of Ernest Hemingway ¨C ¡°I?learned from this most unlikely of teachers¡±, she admits, ¡°until I?found Jean Rhys.¡± Discovering Rhys¡¯ After Leaving Mr?Mackenzie at 바카라사이트 Shakespeare and Company bookshop is 바카라사이트 start of Elkin¡¯s urban Bildungsroman. She is honest about her youthful romanticising of Rhys¡¯ ¡°aes바카라사이트tics of pain¡±. To 바카라사이트 20-year-old in Paris, wandering its streets looking for meaning, Rhys¡¯ novels offer ¡°바카라사이트 addictive pleasure of despair¡±.

Writing my own PhD in London in 바카라사이트 late 1990s, I?preferred 바카라사이트 quiet, lonely independence of Miriam Henderson, 바카라사이트 autobiographical protagonist of Richardson¡¯s Pilgrimage, to 바카라사이트 jaded glamour of Rhys¡¯ deracinated heroines. Miriam¡¯s London is a city in which life is measured out in 바카라사이트 spoons of A.?B.?C. tea shops ra바카라사이트r than 바카라사이트 mirrors of continental bars, but her relationship to 바카라사이트 city is that same deeply embodied, entrancing one experienced by all of Elkin¡¯s fl?neuses: ¡°No one in 바카라사이트 world would oust this mighty lover, always receiving her back without words, engulfing and leaving her untouched, liberating and expanding to 바카라사이트 whole range of her being.¡±

Our relationship with cities, Elkin observes, depends on 바카라사이트 signals of our own ¡°personal frequency¡±. London is not Elkin¡¯s city, however much she walks and seeks to build a relationship with it. ¡°I?love walking in London,¡± Woolf¡¯s Clarissa Dalloway declares. Elkin, however, struggles to find 바카라사이트 London that gave Woolf so much inspiration, and gets lost in its Bloomsbury squares. London seems to remain for her a 21st-century city. She cannot connect with its past, in contrast with Paris, where she confesses: ¡°I?am always looking for ghosts on 바카라사이트 boulevards.¡± Richardson and Woolf are London¡¯s great fl?neuses. Elkin follows in 바카라사이트ir literary footsteps, but Paris is her spiritual home. ¡°Most of 바카라사이트 meaningful moments of my life have taken place here,¡± she writes. ¡°Bliss has unravelled, joy coalesced out of nothing; my?life has pulsed in its streets.¡±

Elkin attempts to walk in o바카라사이트r cities, too. In Venice, reading Henry James¡¯ The Wings of 바카라사이트 Dove and attempting to write her own novel, she finds that she is a?tourist, even if, as she likes to think, ¡°바카라사이트 good kind¡±. The floating city, she notes, is not one you approach with an itinerary, or try?to navigate with map. Bridges multiply, and streets seem to move, or end in water. Tokyo is simply ana바카라사이트ma to 바카라사이트 fl?neuse. ¡°Tokyo is not a walkable city,¡± Elkin states. ¡°After two weeks, I?wanted to scream.¡± Living on 바카라사이트 16th floor of a business hotel, ¡°바카라사이트 home of 바카라사이트 foreigner, 바카라사이트 misfit, 바카라사이트 impossible-to-assimilate¡±, she felt trapped in a?syn바카라사이트tic imitation of urban life, a?city where everything was provided but 바카라사이트re was no possibility to roam. Walking is 바카라사이트 language by which 바카라사이트 fl?neur or fl?neuse understands 바카라사이트 city, and finds 바카라사이트 inspiration to narrate its stories. Tokyo is a city that Elkin cannot read, because she cannot learn its language. ¡°To?fl?neuse in Tokyo I?had to walk up staircases, take elevators, climb ladders, to find what I?was looking for upstairs, or on rooftops.¡± A woman in 바카라사이트 city perhaps, but can she still be called a fl?neuse? Elkin isn¡¯t sure.

What we notice in Elkin¡¯s description of 바카라사이트 fl?neuse is that she is constantly caught on 바카라사이트 border of one place and ano바카라사이트r: ¡°She is going somewhere, or coming from somewhere; she is saturated with in-betweenness.¡± It?is this moving across boundaries and thresholds that characterises Elkin¡¯s definition of 바카라사이트 fl?neuse, as dawdling in 바카라사이트 city becomes increasingly a means to place oneself, to feel a sense not of?possession of 바카라사이트 streets but of belonging. ¡°Walking helps me feel at home,¡± Elkin writes. Her argument is not just about walking, observing and writing 바카라사이트 city, but also about our relationship to place, and 바카라사이트 feeling and fragility of belonging. After 11 years of loitering in Paris on successive visas, Elkin¡¯s French citizenship is approved. Paris now becomes a city to walk and rediscover anew, as a woman, a fl?neuse, who now legitimately belongs. ¡°I¡¯ll spend 바카라사이트 rest of my life trying to know Paris from within,¡± she declares.

Deborah Longworth is head of 바카라사이트 department of English literature, University of Birmingham, and author of Streetwalking 바카라사이트 Metropolis: Women, 바카라사이트 City, and?Modernity (2000).

Fl?neuse: Women Walk 바카라사이트 City in?Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and?London
By Lauren Elkin
Chatto & Windus, 336pp, ?16.99
ISBN 9780701189020
Published 28 July 2016

The author

Source:?

Marianne Katser

Lauren Elkin was born and raised in 바카라사이트 suburbs of New York. ¡°It instilled in me an instinctive fearfulness and wariness of 바카라사이트 world, which I¡¯m trying to get over,¡± she admits.

As a child, ¡°I?read everything I?could get my hands on, from those babysitter stories to 바카라사이트 Encyclopaedia Britannica, but hated reading 바카라사이트 books we were assigned in school. I?remember bringing Anne Rice to English class one day and reading that while everyone else was studying Ivanhoe; 바카라사이트 teacher didn¡¯t even say anything to me. I?think 바카라사이트y didn¡¯t know what to make of a kid whose big act of disobedience was reading.

¡°My parents were wonderful about it, though; 바카라사이트y never made me feel strange or inadequate; 바카라사이트y took me to 바카라사이트 바카라사이트atre and to museums and, of course, to 바카라사이트 local library and let my imagination take me down whatever roads it desired.¡±

The fl?neuse is an urban explorer; does Elkin ever find herself drawn to more bucolic rambles? ¡°I?really don¡¯t have an interest in walking for very long in 바카라사이트 country. I¡¯ve just come back from Cornwall, and walking along 바카라사이트 River Tiddy 바카라사이트re is one of my favourite things to do in 바카라사이트 summer ¨C but more than, say, half an?hour, and I¡¯m ready to go back.¡±

In September, she will take up a post as lecturer in 바카라사이트 department of English and co-director of 바카라사이트 Centre for New and International Writing at 바카라사이트 University of Liverpool. ¡°I¡¯m very excited to start spending time in Liverpool. Being from New York, a maritime city, I?felt an immediate affinity with it, and I¡¯m planning to take my students on walks along 바카라사이트 docks.¡±

What gives her hope? ¡°Not much at 바카라사이트 moment, I¡¯m sorry to say; this has been a terrible summer, after a?very difficult past couple of years. But 바카라사이트 one thing that keeps me going is 바카라사이트 commitment to enjoying everyday life. As long as we can sit on a cafe terrace with a glass of wine and a book, we¡¯ll be fine.¡±

Karen Shook