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Hjalmar Söderberg’s Stockholm: The Precinematic Flâneur in Förvillelser [Diversions]

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The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies
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Abstract

The entry compares the flâneur in Hjalmar Söderberg’s debut novel to the one established by Baudelaire, which was later conceptually refined by Walter Benjamin. It is claimed that the flânerie is almost free-floating, sometimes tied to certain characters, sometimes not. The invisible extra-diegetic third person narrator comes to resemble a camera lens. Förvillelser also contains traits of precinematic media that further strengthen the link to the visual and cinematic qualities in a novel that was published almost simultaneously with the production of the very first film segments (1895).

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Bibliography

  • Baudelaire, Charles. 2011. To a passer-by. In The flowers of evil. Trans. Cyril Scott. Project Gutenberg.

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  • Benjamin, Walter. 1999. The arcades project. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.

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  • Söderberg, Hjalmar. 2014. Diversions. Translated from the Swedish by David Barrett. Published by David Barrett.

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  • Soila, Tytti. 2010. Passion at the threshold: Doctor Glas the Flaneur in the films of rune Carlstén and Mai Zetterling. Journal of Aesthetics & Culture 1: 1–12. https://doi.org/10.3402/jac.v1i0.5227.

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Correspondence to Joakim Wrethed .

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Wrethed, J. (2022). Hjalmar Söderberg’s Stockholm: The Precinematic Flâneur in Förvillelser [Diversions]. In: Tambling, J. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Urban Literary Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62419-8_340

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