Larra, el moderno europeo: El castellano viejo y la invención del flâneur

Jacob, Henry

doi:10.21608/tjhss.2021.90609.1061

Larra, el moderno europeo: El castellano viejo y la invención del flâneur

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Henry Jacob

History, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, Cambridge, England

10.21608/tjhss.2021.90609.1061

Abstract

This essay endeavors to complicate the dominant interpretation of the flâneur through a reevaluation of the concept’s intellectual origins in Spain, rather than France. Engaging with theorists such as Walter Benjamin, this article propounds that the understudied Mariano José de Larra, instead of Charles Baudelaire, should receive credit as the creator of the flâneur. After contextualizing Larra and his place in 1830s Madrid, I develop my thesis through a close reading of “El castellano viejo,” a short story written by Larra that encapsulates how the Spaniard preceded the more famous Frenchman. I explore the dynamic between Larra and “Fígaro,” his alter ego, as well as the boundary between writing and experience. In addition, I show how Larra transitions from flâneur-observer to flâneur-writer in “El castellano viejo.” Anticipating challenges to my argument, I anchor my proposal on the idea that the flaneur is essentially fluid. In fact, Larra epitomizes how both the flâneur and ideas circulate freely across borders. By challenging the dogma on Baudelaire with the counter example of Larra, I also suggest that more peripheral national cultures like that of Spain played a role in shaping literary modernity.

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