Flanörens världsbild

(The "flâneur" and his world view.) This conference publication is based on presentations and panel discussions from a symposium held in January 2013 at the Academy. The literary "flâneur" is closely related to the emergence of megacities around the turn of the last century, which implied unprece dented changes in terms of spatial restructuring, abolishing of social barriers and individual estrangement.

The aim of the symposium was not only to place Nordic "flâneurs" in a broader European perspective, but also to chart the most important ingredients of their worldview as well as to discuss the variations within Nordic countries.

The present book emphasises the great role the "flâneur's attitude" played in the history of literature, not least in the Nordic countries. During several decades its influence could be felt in the whole of European literature and it was an important source of inspiration for some of later modernistic trends.