Journal archive

Abstract: The publication presents the results of a study of the postmodern transformation of the image of the flaneur in the novels of modern German writers – Traveling on One Leg by Herta Müller and The Sad Guest by Matthias Nawrat. The theoretical foundation of the study draws on the works of M. Iampol’ski, W. Benjamin and Z. Bauman, dedicated to the flaneur as a sociocultural, historical, literary and philosophical phenomenon. The article examines the historical conditions for the emergence of the flaneur as a social phenomenon at the turn of the 18th – 19th centuries, defines the main characteristics of the flaneur as a literary figure (“super vision” (M. Iampol’ski), marginality, and creativity), and investigates the evolution of the flaneur in the works by E. A. Poe, F. M. Dostoevsky, and Ch. Baudelaire. The fundamental thesis of M. Iampol’ski that the flaneur, as one of the variants of the observer, reflects the crisis of the subject in European culture, allows talking about the proximity of the figure of the flaneur to the postmodern “disappearing subject”. In the 20th century, the flaneur becomes a philosophical concept – a key one in the philosophy of W. Benjamin, in which the habitus of the flaneur is associated with the spatial structures of the metropolis as a symbol of modernity. Z. Bauman offers a postmodern interpretation of the flaneur, considering him from the perspective of nomadism and the axiology of postmodernism. The image of the flaneur is widely represented in modern German literature, especially in the prose of migrant authors, which include Müller and Nawrat. The work examines both the traditional characteristics of the flaneur inherent in the characters of the novels under study, and the possibility of understanding them in the context of the postmodern interpretation of the flaneur by Bauman: as a nomad in constant motion, deprived of the idea of home as a starting point or destination, having no life strategy, avoiding rootedness in social ties or profession. The dynamics of the image of the flaneur in the modern novel interacts with the interpretation of the postmodern metropolis as a space of transit, a “non-place”, a conglomerate of cultural worlds in which flaneur crystallizes as a lifestyle. It is concluded that the image of the flaneur in these authors represents the crisis experience of our time: the worldview of Müller’s female protagonist is determined by the trauma of the dictatorship, and the novel by Nawrat conveys a doubt in the ability of the story-teller flaneur to respond to the challenges of the modern world.

About the author(s) :

Olga A. Dronova

Derzhavin Tambov State University (Tambov, Russia)

ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4508-7237

Publication Timeline:

Date of receipt: 15.07.2024; date of publication: 28.12.2024

References:

Bauman, Z. (2007). Flaneure, Spieler und Touristen. Essays zu postmodernen Lebensformen. Hamburg, Hamburger Edition HIS Verlagsges. 270 s.

Benjamin, W. (1991a). Gesammelte Schriften. Band I. Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp. 1275 s.

Benjamin, W. (1991b). Gesammelte Schriften. Band III. Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp Taschenbuch. 727 s.

Deleuze, G., Guattari, F. (2010). Tysyacha plato: Kapitalizm i shizofreniya [A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia]. Ekaterinburg, U-Faktoriya, Moscow, Astrel'. 895 p.

Grün, S. (2010). Fremd in einzelnen Dingen. Fremdheit und Alterität bei Herta Müller. Stuttgart, ibidem. 128 s.

Keidel, M. (2006). Die Wiederkehr der Flaneure. Literarische Flanerie und flanierendes Denken zwischen Wahrnehmung und Reflexion. Würzburg, Königshausen und Neumann. 215 s.

Kondakov, V. A., Shlyakov, A. V. (2019). Nomadizm postmoderna: aksiologicheskii podkhod [Postmodern Nomadism: An Axiological Approach]. In Obshchestvo: filosofiya, istoriya, kul'tura. No. 2 (58), pp. 58–62.

Lotman, Yu. M. (1992). Izbrannye stat'i: v 3-kh t. [Selected Articles, in 3 vols.]. Vol. 1: Stat'i po semiotike i tipologii kul'tury. Tallin, Aleksandra. 479 p.

Müller, H. (2010). Der König verneigt sich und tötet. Frankfurt am Main, Fischer. 205s. Müller, H. (2018). Reisende auf einem Bein. Frankfurt am Main, Fischer. 176 s.

Nawrat, M. (2016). Eine Poetik der Umkehrung oder die Gegenwehr der Poesie. In Nachgefragt. Novinki im Gespräch mit Autor_innen aus Osteuropa. Norderstedt, BoD – Books on Demand, pp. 177–184.

Nawrat, M. (2017). Grenze und Utopie. In Bingen, D., Loew, P. O. (Hg.). Vierter Kongress Polenforschung. Grenzen im Fluss. Ansprachen und Ergebnisse. Darmstadt, Deutsches Polen-Institut, S. 25–41.

Nawrat, M. (2019). Der traurige Gast. Reinbek bei Hamburg, Rowohlt. 302 s.

Neumeyer, H. (1999). Der Flaneur: Konzeptionen der Moderne. Würzburg, Königshausen und Neumann. 420 s.

Peters, L. (2012). Stadttext und Selbstbild. Berliner Autoren der Postmigration nach 1989. Heidelberg, Universitätsverlag WINTER. 286 s.

Schulte, S. (2015). Bilder der Erinnerung. Über Trauma und Erinnerung in der literarischen Konzeption von Herta Müllers Reisende auf einem Bein und Atemschaukel. Würzburg, Königshausen und Neumann GmbH. 305 s.

Thiemann, J. (2019). (Post-) migrantische Flanerie. Transareale Kartierung in Berlin-Romanen der Jahrtausendwende. Würzburg, Königshausen& Neumann. 222 s.

Yampolsky, M. B. (2000). Nablyudatel'. Ocherki istorii videniya [The Observer. Essays on History of Seeing]. Moscow, Ad Marginem. 287 p.