Geographies of melancholia and complex pleasure : Black flânerie in Edward P. Jones's "A New Man" and "Lost in the City"
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: This article explores how Black geographies shape experiences of melancholia and pleasure in Edward P. Jones's Lost in the City (1992). It examines how movement through Washington, D.C. — understood as Black flânerie — becomes a means of processing complex emotions in African American life. In "A New Man," Woodrow and Rita Cunningham struggle with melancholia after their teen daughter's disappearance, using the city to navigate grief, though they cannot fully move forward. Similarly, in "Lost in the City," Lydia Walsh, a successful Yale-educated lawyer, directs the driver to intentionally lose her in the city. Her movement through familiar landmarks reflects her negotiation of loss, shock, and memory in the aftermath of her mother's death. Through the application of the concept of Black flâneur to these characters, the article demonstrates how slow loss, melancholia, and complex pleasure are woven into the fabric of Jones's Black literary geographies.
Source: Brno Studies in English
DOI: 10.5817/bse2025-1-12
Author: Dorottya Mózes
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4417450727
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: