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361939

The Hybrid Flâneur in Teju Cole’s Open City: A Bhabhian Reading

Article

Last updated: 05 Jan 2025

Subjects

-

Tags

Literature

Abstract

In Teju Cole's Open City (2011), Julius, the half-Nigerian, half-German psychiatrist is struck by solitude. In his attempt to alleviate that solitude, he takes to flânerie, an old tradition which was practised by bourgeois Parisian men in the nineteenth century and which has come to acquire new meanings over time. While traditionally flânerie meant leisurely strolling the streets and boulevards of Paris, hence allowing the stroller to engage with the urban space as a voyeur, it has come to encompass the predicaments of the modern and postmodern idler as well. Julius takes to aimless wandering in the city of New York and later extends his flânerie to Brussels. Through his aimless wandering, he constantly meets hybrid characters who, like himself, inhabit liminal spaces. New York, becomes the “Open City" of the title, where new meanings are formulated without any final conclusions, and where concepts related to interstitiality and liminality are constantly activated. The following paper aims to examine flânerie in Teju Cole's Open City from a Bhabhian perspective through applying Bhabha's concepts of hybridity, the third space, mimicry and ambivalence to a novel which takes place first and foremost in intermediary spaces.

DOI

10.21608/ejlt.2024.277118.1061

Keywords

Hybridity, Third Space, Mimicry, ambivalence, Bhabha

Authors

First Name

Dina

Last Name

Abd Elsalam

MiddleName

Mohamed

Affiliation

Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University

Email

dm_salam@yahoo.com

City

-

Orcid

-

Volume

13

Article Issue

1

Related Issue

48638

Issue Date

2024-07-01

Receive Date

2024-03-15

Publish Date

2024-07-01

Page Start

137

Page End

156

Online ISSN

2314-6699

Link

https://ejlt.journals.ekb.eg/article_361939.html

Detail API

https://ejlt.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=361939

Order

361,939

Type

Research in linguistic and literary studies

Type Code

2,266

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Egyptian Journal of Linguistics and Translation

Publication Link

https://ejlt.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

The Hybrid Flâneur in Teju Cole’s Open City: A Bhabhian Reading

Details

Type

Article

Created At

28 Dec 2024