Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
English
Document Type
Dissertation
Abstract
This dissertation argues that wandering, whether across cities (flânerie) or across geographic regions and countries (travel), is a process of not only finding meaning but also one of confronting alienation and dislocation, conditions of the fragmentariness of modern life, which is signified by transnationalism, media, technology, and consumerism. This examination of flânerie, travel, and cosmopolitanism investigates three women writers’ representations of navigating an alienating, fragmented world—or, more simply, of the search for a sense of home and/or belonging. Transatlantic writers Mary McCarthy, Elizabeth Bishop, and Zadie Smith not only consider specific places and suspended in-betweens but also write spaces that transcend or redefine regional and national boundaries. Although their works offer many shifting, fluid, and suspended boundaries, particularly of place, space, and time, delineations and imaginaries of the nation simmer below the surface.
Date
3-18-2019
Recommended Citation
Hughes, Charla Allyn, "Fragments and Flânerie: Modernity, Cosmopolitanism, and the Art of Wandering" (2019). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 4848.
https://repository.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/4848
Committee Chair
Kronick, Joseph
DOI
10.31390/gradschool_dissertations.4848