Walking and the Aesthetics of Modernity : Pedestrian Mobility in Literature and the Arts

This book gathers together an array of international scholars, critics, and artists concerned with the issue of walking as a theme in modern literature, philosophy, and the arts. Covering a wide array of authors and media from eighteenth-century fiction writers and travelers to contemporary film, digital art, and artists’ books, the essays collected here take a broad literary and cultural approach to the art of walking, which has received considerable interest due to the burgeoning field of mobility studies. Contributors demonstrate how walking, far from constituting a simplistic, naïve, or transparent cultural script, allows for complex visions and reinterpretations of a human’s relation to modernity, introducing us to a world of many different and changing realities. Front Matter....Pages i-xxv Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Walking the Streets of London in the Eighteenth Century: A Performative Art?....Pages 3-14 Musing, Painting, and Writing: Walking as an Art in Diderot’s Promenade Vernet (Salon de 1767) ....Pages 15-28 “Du croisement de leurs innombrables rapports”: Baudelaire and De Quincey’s flâneurs ....Pages 29-41 How Poetry Comes to Him: An Excursion to Gary Snyder’s Wild Poetics....Pages 43-61 Revisiting the American “Walk Poem”: A.R. Ammons, Charles Olson, and Jonathan Williams....Pages 63-81 Front Matter....Pages 83-83 Marianne Colston’s Art of Walking: Gendering the Picturesque in Journal of a Tour in France, Switzerland, and Italy ....Pages 85-98 Following Footprints: Photography, Writing, and the Artist’s Book in Art Walking....Pages 99-114 Wayfaring in the Megacity: Tsai Ming-Liang’s Walker and Lav Diaz’s Melancholia ....Pages 115-127 The Art of Walking in Space and Time: The Quest for London....Pages 129-140 Walking with the World: Toward an Ecological Approach to Performative Art Practice....Pages 141-154 Front Matter....Pages 155-155 The Art of Walking and the Mindscapes of Trauma in Thomas De Quincey’s Autobiographical Works: The Pains of Wandering, the Pains of Remembering....Pages 157-171 Writing Dromomania in the Romantic Era: Nerval, Collins, and Charlotte Brontë....Pages 173-185 A Juggernaut in the Streets of London: Walking as Destructive Force in R.L. Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde ....Pages 187-196 Thomas Wolfe and the Urban Night Prowl: Walking, Modernism, and Myth....Pages 197-211 Existential Wanderings in Gus Van Sant’s “Walking Trilogy”: Gerry, Elephant, and Last Days ....Pages 213-226 Front Matter....Pages 227-227 Perambulating the Village: Henry David Thoreau and the Politics of “Walking”....Pages 229-240 Walking in Wartime: Edith Wharton’s “The Look of Paris”....Pages 241-252 Pound, Peripatetic Verse, and the Postwar Liberal Aesthetic....Pages 253-266 The Art of the “Good Step” in Colm Tóibín’s Bad Blood: A Walk Along the Irish Border (1987)....Pages 267-277 Walking and Technology in the Fiction of Jennifer Egan: Moving toward the Posthuman....Pages 279-295 Back Matter....Pages 297-331 This Text Gathers Together An Array Of International Scholars, Critics, And Artists Concerned With The Issue Of Walking As A Theme In Modern Literature, Philosophy, And The Arts. Covering A Wide Array Of Authors And Media From Eighteenth-century Fiction Writers And Travellers To Contemporary Film, Digital Art, And Artists' Books, The Essays Collected Here Take A Broad Literary And Cultural Approach To The Art Of Walking, Which Has Received Considerable Interest Due To The Burgeoning Field Of Mobility Studies. Klaus Benesch, Franco̧is Specq, Editors. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 297-317) And Index.