Gender Space and the Gaze in Post-Haussmann Paris Rethinking Baudelaire's Flaneur

Description:

Charles Baudelaire's flaneur, as described in his 1863 essay "The Painter of Modern Life," remains central to understandings of gender, space, and the gaze in late nineteenth-century Paris, despite misgivings by some scholars. Baudelaire's privileged and leisurely figure, at home on the boulevards, underlies theorizations of bourgeois masculinity and, by implication, bourgeois femininity, whereby men gaze and roam urban spaces unreservedly while women, lacking the freedom to either gaze or roam, are wedded to domesticity. In challenging this tired paradigm and offering fresh ways to consider how gender, space, and the gaze were constructed, this book attends to several neglected elements of visual and written culture: the ubiquitous male beggar as the true denizen of the boulevard, the abundant depictions of well-to-do women looking (sometimes at men), the popularity of windows and balconies as viewing perches, and the overwhelming emphasis given by both male and female artists to domestic scenes. The book's premise that gender, space, and the gaze have been too narrowly conceived by a scholarly embrace of Baudelaire's flaneur is supported across the cultural spectrum by period sources that include art criticism, high and low visual culture, newspapers, novels, prescriptive and travel literature, architectural practices, interior design trends, and fashion journals.

subjects: Gender identity,  Man-woman relationships in art,  Man-woman relationships in literature,  Gaze in art,  Gaze in literature,  French Arts,  Themes, motives,  Arts and society,  History,  Home in art,  Home in literature,  Public spaces in art,  Public spaces in literature,  Flaneurs in art,  Flaneurs in literature,  Visual communication,  Art and society,  Relations entre hommes et femmes dans l'art,  Relations entre hommes et femmes dans la littérature,  Regard dans l'art,  Regard dans la littérature,  Arts français,  Thèmes, motifs,  Arts et société,  Histoire,  Foyer dans l'art,  Foyer dans la littérature,  Espaces publics dans l'art,  Espaces publics dans la littérature,  Communication visuelle,  Art et société,  SOCIAL SCIENCE,  Discrimination & Race Relations,  Minority Studies,  POLITICAL SCIENCE,  Public Policy,  Cultural Policy,  Anthropology,  Cultural,  Popular Culture,  Men in art,  Men in literature,  Women in art,  Women in literature,  Flaneur,  Geschlechterrolle,  Visuelle Wahrnehmung,  Europa