Another Modernity: The Contre-Flâneur in Nineteenth-Century Paris

Abstract

This project argues that the flâneur’s role in the edification of modern Paris has been hyperbolized. It will reconsider the categories through which Paris has been constructed around the topos of the flâneur by using the concept of the contre-flâneur. As the term suggests, I will reexamine the represented urban space stripped of the priority typically granted to the flâneur and contrast the motion of the flâneur with the circulations of the contre-flâneurs: as opposed to the flâneur’s movements, those of contre-flâneurs are purposeful, and their presence leaves a material imprint on the cityscape. Scholarship tends to link the modern idea of mobility with the aimless wanderings of the flâneur, setting aside more utilitarian and varied forms of circulation that were just as typical of the modern city. Studying the capital’s contre-flâneurs opens up a new perspective on the role of utilitarian circulation in nineteenth-century representation, while bringing new participants, functions, systems, and socialities into the scholarship about nineteenth-century modernity.