Is the flâneuse even possible? The feminine and the space of modernity in O fată se plimbă pe stradă [A girl walks in the street] by Sorana Gurian

Abstract

Sorana Gurian’s writing records the impossibility of a discourse of one’s own and unmasks the misogyny inherent in modernity. The Romanian short story O fată se plimbă pe stradă [A girl walks in the street] (1939) offers the author an opportunity to discuss the figure of the flâneuse, who, in its relations to modernity, public space or gender, seems to diagnose the condition of women within a modernising culture. The presence of these women in the text remains closely linked to their corporeality, constantly questioned and constrained by a hostile society. This is all the more visible in the case of a young girl with mobility disabilities: a close reading highlights the narrative function of walking, a physical activity that gives a temporal and rhythmic framework to the text.

Keywords

• flâneuse
• flâneur
• women’s literature
• modern
• urban
• disability