Female flânerie in Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage

Abstract

I take as a starting point the often-repeated assertion that the literature of modernity describes the experiences of men, and the long-established connection between the public sphere and the city in modernity. From Baudelaire's definition of the flâneur to Benjamin's elaboration of the concept, it is inevitable that some contemporary critics should have explored the role (if any) of the flâneuse in modernism. Dorothy Richardon's Pilgrimage presents an intriguing case of female flânerie. The potent Woolfian image of the room as the space of female creativity has obscured the equally potent image of the street (specifically London street) as the site of female empowerment. In Pilgrimage, the pervasive questioning of men's values, men's culture and men's language is bound up with Miriam Henderson's having the freedom of the London streets.