Precarious Flânerie and the Ethics of the Self in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction

Eva Ries

Published by De Gruyter 2022

Precarious Flânerie and the Ethics of the Self in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction

Eva Ries

Volume 76 in the series Buchreihe der Anglia / Anglia Book Series

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110767490

Overview
Contents

About this book

Even though the literary trope of the flâneur has been proclaimed ‘dead’ on several occasions, it still proves particularly lively in contemporary Anglophone fiction. This study investigates how flânerie takes a belated ‘ethical turn’ in its more recent manifestations by negotiating models of ethical subjectivity. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s writings on the ‘aesthetics of existence’ as well as Judith Butler’s notion of precariousness as conditio humana, it establishes a link between post-sovereign models of subject formation and a paradoxical constellation of flânerie, which surfaces most prominently in the work of Walter Benjamin. By means of detailed readings of Ian McEwan’s Saturday, Siri Hustvedt’s The Blindfold, Teju Cole’s Open City, Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For and Robin Robertson’s The Long Take, Or a Way to Lose More Slowly, this book traces how the ambivalence of flânerie and its textual representation produces ethical norms while at the same time propagating the value of difference by means of disrupting societal norms of sameness. Precarious Flânerie and the Ethics of the Self in Contemporary Anglophone Fiction thus shows that the flânerie text becomes a medium of ethical critique in post-postmodern times.

Author / Editor information

Eva Ries, University of Augsburg, Germany,

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	I
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	V
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	VII
1 The Return of the Flâneur Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2 Flânerie and its Discontents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
3 Michel Foucault’s Ethics of the Self Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
4 Judith Butler’s Precarious Subjects Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	88
5 Synopsis: Ethical Subjects and the Flânerie Text Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	105
6 The End of Flânerie? The Sovereign Subject and Precarious City Life in Ian McEwan’s Saturday Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	111
7 Flânerie as Technique of the Self Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	132
8 City Matters: Affect and Media in Precarious Performances of Subjectivity Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203
9 Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	270
Works Cited Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	278
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	296

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: De Gruyter
Audience: Scholars of Literary Studies, Literary Ethics, Urban Studies, Spatial Studies; libraries
Pages
- Front matter: 8
- Main content: 298
Keywords: flâneuse/flâneur; aesthetics of existence; technique of the self; performative turn

eBook

Published: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 9783110767490

Hardcover

Published: June 21, 2022
ISBN: 9783110767476

Paperback

Published: June 17, 2024
ISBN: 9783111530925