Flaneuse by Lauren Elkin
As an inveterate walker (I don’t drive…) I was naturally going to be attracted to a book that covered women and walking; especially one that promised a psychogeographical look, rather than marching around in trainers to get fit! (Not that there’s anything wrong with that, of course). Lauren Elkin’s book takes the concept of a flaneur (defined as “a man who saunters around observing society”) and applies a specifically female experience to this, creating the idea of a flaneuse – and the idea is fascinating.
Elkin is an American abroad in the world, self-exiled from her country of birth, and her concept of flaneuserie is filtered through her own experience. Using a mixture of memoir, herstory and social commentary, Elkin presents an intriguing look about the limitations placed on women’s lives and how transgressive it is (and still can be) for women to simply wander the streets.
Most of the chapters focus on a specific city (Paris more than once, obviously) taking a look at individual women who’ve made the landscape their own. So of course Virginia Woolf stalks the streets of London; George Sand haunts Paris in the grip of revolution; and Sophie Calle pursues her prey through Venice. The books also references cultural media such as the film “Lost in Translation” which features a very specific situation of a woman left to her own devices in Tokyo, a situation mirrored in Elkin’s own life.
The world is less scary when you have some control over where you go in it.
“Flaneuse” is an interesting read; Elkin wears her erudition lightly but references everything from Marina Warner’s “Monuments and Maidens” through any number of novelists to the situationists and surrealists. She makes important points about the marginalisation of women’s experiences and it’s frightening to be reminded how recently women’s lives were constrained (even by something as essential to them as the clothing they wore).
Sand’s trouser-wearing was in its way an act of revolution; at the very least, it was illegal. In the year 1800, a law had been passed forbidding women to wear them in public. This law is still in effect today, though of course ignored; but even in 1969 an attempt to overturn it failed…A culture struggling to redefine itself against the blood-soaked Place de la Revolution fixated on the female body as a tool for instilling certain values in the heart of the new Republic.
I was reminded when reading Elkin’s book of the “Reclaim the Night” campaign which came into existence in the 1970s, during the second wave of feminism and when I was just discovering the movement; and which is still in existence today. To a certain extent Elkin’s book doesn’t engage with the real issues of violence which can come a woman’s way if she’s out and about in the city; and ignores the streetwalking aspect of women’s lives when women are out there not just for the pleasure of ambling through the streets but as sex workers. It’s perhaps a middle-class conceit to wander the city streets to get to know a location when some of us would like just to be out there safely allowed to get from place to place without being hassled (or worse).
So, much as I enjoyed reading “Flaneuse”, I did have a few issues with it. There is a slight sense of the narrative flagging towards the end of the book and if I’m honest, although I loved the chapter on Martha Gellhorn (because she fascinates me) I felt that it did sit slightly anachronistically alongside the rest of the book. It read more as a case of someone flaneusing the world rather than a city, and the lack of focus tended to dilute the effect of Elkin’s story. Additionally, there were occasions when I would have found an index useful as the book has so many cultural references that there were times I wanted to go back and check them.
What do we see of a revolution after it’s gone? A better, world perhaps. Some changes in the structure of society. But not always – sometimes there’s no change at all.
However, parts of the book were fascinating; particularly the sections on Paris, one of which focused on the various revolutions which have shaken its streets over the centuries. That city is Elkin’s adopted home nowadays and her love for it certainly shone through in her narrative. It was also instructive to be reminded just how radical it can actually be to walk in some cities (mainly American), which seem to have been constructed solely for the use of the car.
…. it’s the centre of cities where women have been empowered, by plunging into the heart of them, and walking where they’re not meant to. Walking where other people (men) walk without eliciting comment. That is the transgressive act. You don’t need to crunch around in Gore-Tex to be subversive, if you’re a woman. Just walk out your front door.
“Flaneuse” is an interesting book which makes interesting points about women’s presence on the streets. I think it ultimately fails to go far enough in its discussion of the issues they’ve faced in the past and still face now, and whether this was a deliberate decision by the author or not I can’t tell. It’s certainly set me thinking about our relationship to our environment and also appreciate certain freedoms modern women have, compared with Sand and her ilk. However, the more I considered it and let it settle in my brain after I’d read it, the more I ended up feeling that it falls short of its intended aim. With more structure, more historical narrative and more focus on the very real issues women can face while out on the streets attempting to flaneuse, and perhaps a little less personal memoir, the book would have been much stronger. I’ve ended up sounding a bit more negative than I expected here, but I did enjoy reading “Flaneuse”; and if your local library stocks it that might be the best way to check it out and see how it works for you
Feb 12, 2018 @ 07:24:19
This sounds fascinating! What a Shame the author has shied away from some aspects of what women’s experiences can be when simply out walking around, still a completely brilliant concept for a book. I love walking around the area I live – you spot all sorts of things as I walk. I was out for half an hour yesterday, (my walking has taken a big hit since my RA diagnosis) and I spotted so many mini stories – including people saying goodbye to one other outside a working man’s club. I love just walking and looking around me.
Feb 12, 2018 @ 15:06:16
It *is* a really interesting concept, and parts of it were fascinating and quite atmospheric. The Paris bits in particular I loved but I could have done with less of Elkin’s biography and more of the concepts she was exploring at times. I do love to walk, though – I have a little stomping ground in London I’ve ambled around for decades now and I’m very attached to it! 🙂
Feb 12, 2018 @ 11:13:06
This does sound interesting despite its flaws. I love walking (I also don’t drive) it’s a great way to see a place and the people in it. But like you I think I would want more exploration of the complex issues around women walking.
Feb 12, 2018 @ 15:04:44
It *is* a really interesting book, and I did enjoy most of it. I just ended up thinking it could have been a bit better, particularly had it focused more on the issues women face. Definitely worth giving a look though!
Feb 12, 2018 @ 11:51:09
Love your review. I wasn’t aware of that law still forbidding women to wear trousers in public in France. How funny ! But then I told my husband, and he said that sometimes legislators can’t be bothered to repeal laws that don’t make sense anymore. And he told me a good one: even nowadays, when you visit a French arsenal, as he sometimes does for his work, the law says that the sentry is still supposed to provide 3 bales of hay for the visitor’s horse !
Feb 12, 2018 @ 15:03:38
Thanks! And yes, laws are a fascinating thing. My OH (retired lawyer) will reel off the most archaic and obscure laws which are still in place but never used. Some of them can be quite scary…. =:o
Feb 12, 2018 @ 12:44:32
I enjoyed your review very much! I too liked the book, though for me it did lose focus sometimes. Looking back I wonder whether structuring it so tightly round her biography really worked (e.g., she wrote about them because she’d lived there and not because they had anything particular to add to the discussion), and like you I’d have preferred a bit less of that and a bit more about the topics you highlight, but perhaps it is suffering from being one of the first books on the subject – there’s so much possible material, one book cannot encompass it all.
I thought Gellhorn was there as the ultimate flaneuse, all the world was her city…
Feb 12, 2018 @ 15:02:31
I agree – as the book went on I found the biographical elements less interesting and I think the fact that she structured it around where she had lived limited the book, but also oddly its scope. Even allowing for the fact that it’s one of the first to tackle the topic, it’s perhaps a little simplistic to think that a woman can just put on a pair of trousers and trainers and walk the streets in freedom….
As for Gellhorn, I agree too – she was definitely a peripatetic wanderer, but because of that I felt that the chapter on her sat a little awkwardly with the rest of them, as they generally had such a tight focus. Interesting woman, though (Gellhorn, that is!)
Feb 13, 2018 @ 15:40:37
Yes, good points! And with the notable exception of Japan, it was all very western.
I still enjoyed it though!
Feb 13, 2018 @ 19:40:40
Oh, I did too! 🙂
Feb 12, 2018 @ 15:56:58
What a shame this didn’t quite stretch far enough in scope. I’ve been meaning to get hold of a copy for a while now. A couple of years ago I wrote an article about flanerie (along with knitting patterns for a flaneur, a flaneuse and Edgar Allen Poe with a raven on his head) for a knitting magazine – one of the strangest and funniest things I’ve got away with – so I read quite a lot around the subject. Sadly this book didn’t come out until after the article was published but I’d be interested to see what she writes.
Feb 12, 2018 @ 16:12:25
Don’t get me wrong, I *did* enjoy most of the book. But reflecting back on it, I really think it needed more depth. The topic is a massive one and deserves a really thorough exploration. In some ways the chapter on Woolf was a bit thin, and actually made me want to just go back and read Woolf instead.
As for your flaneur/flaneuse and Poe – I *so* want to see that! :)))) So in awe of your knitting skills!
Feb 12, 2018 @ 18:33:08
A great and balanced review, I can see why you found those gaps difficult to condone in the book.
Feb 12, 2018 @ 19:09:07
Thanks Liz. I did like certain aspects of the book a lot, but I wanted to like it more – and unfortunately the gaps I perceived prevented that! 🙂
Feb 12, 2018 @ 20:59:16
I couldn’t find it on the ‘net – it may be another lost programme – but there was a BBC TV programme, “Night and Day”, in the 1980s, featuring Celia Fremlin, crime-writer and flaneuse, and Jeffrey Barnard, who was famously unwell. It may have been improved by my memory, I’m afraid, if it still exists.
Feb 12, 2018 @ 21:12:18
Ooh, sounds intriguing – I must have missed that one but it would have been fascinating!
Feb 13, 2018 @ 15:09:23
Interesting review; I’ve read several of this book, but yours is useful in singling out those weaknesses among what seem to be strengths. I’ve written a bit over at my place on psychogeography, theory of the dérive, etc. – just got back from one in London. You might care to look into a book of essays edited by Tina Richardson, ‘Walking Inside Out’, and I’d recommend this recent essay by Garnette Cadogan, who makes a similar point to yours about the subversion of a woman’s just stepping out of her door – in his case, while being black; here’s the link: http://lithub.com/walking-while-black/
Feb 13, 2018 @ 19:43:09
Many of the reviews I’ve read *have* been good, although I did notice that some others picked up on similar points to me (and some were quite scathing too!) And thank you for the links – I shall check them out. I love a good wander myself – random encounters with landscape can be such fun.
Feb 13, 2018 @ 19:15:32
Have you read Rebecca Solnit’s book on walking? Wonderful. How funny to discover a couple of my favourite bloggers – your good self and Madame Bibi, don’t drive – me neither!
Feb 13, 2018 @ 19:40:30
I haven’t but in fact I gifted Middle Child one of her books for a recent birthday so I’ll have to find out what she thinks of Solnit – I was certainly intrigied by the sound of it.
And yes – walking is so much better for you (though not so great for when you need to do a supermarket run….)
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Feb 20, 2018 @ 11:19:09
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