The Memory Flaneur in Teju Cole's Open City

Abstract

In this article, I engage with Charles Baudelaire's and Walter Benjamin’s idea of the flâneur in order to articulate my own concept of the memory flâneur. I argue that while wandering through a city’s memorial sites may have been implied in Baudelaire and Benjamin’s formulations, memorialization is a crucial aspect of global city-making that deserves to be critically and categorically examined through the lens of flânerie. I define the memory flâneur as a mnemophile and a connoisseur of a city’s memory culture. In the last part of the artcile, I turn to Teju Cole’s Open City because it illuminates –– and is, in turn, illuminated by –– the idea of memory flânerie. I explore what Julius’ (the novel’s main character) leisurely walks through New York City reveal about the relationship between America’s capitalist urbanism and its memory culture.