Abstract
The question of space and its “production”, following Lefebvre (1975), has emerged as a fertile field of enquiry for literary studies, also when related to question of mobility in different contexts: from experiences of migration and diaspora to urban transits, to cite a few. In this context, the figure of the flâneur, intrinsically connected to experiences and representation of urban modernity, has attracted considerable critical attention. However, little attention has been awarded to its female counterpart, the flâneuse, because, as Wolff (1985) rightly observes, the experience of modernity has been in great part narrated from a male perspective. Starting with the short story “Amor” [Love] by Clarice Lispector (1960/1998), and the text “Um corpo negro pelado” [A naked black body] by Miriam Alves (2014), the article will discuss how these texts seem to dialogue with this paradigm of modern mobility. It will consider how female mobility in Brazilian literature written by women express attempts to rethink mobility as a political act and as a search for female empowerment.
Keywords:
flâneur; flâneuse; mobility; gender; literature