Modernism and the metropolisrepresenting the city as transitory spectacle

Resumo

In the light of Simmel's 'The Metropolis and Mental Life', this essay considers how the artistic representations of the first years of the 20th century paid tribute to the enerbries of a modernity characterized by accelerated urban rhythms. Drawing on the notion of urban "flanerie", as introduced by Baudelaire and subsequently developed by Benjamin, it explores how the disruptions in perceptual experience in the modern metropolis marked key modernist literary texts, such as "Mrs Dalloway" (1925) and "Ulysses"(1922). Thus, the paper claims that the two novels illustrate the development of a specific semiology which heavily relies on the obsession with visual spectacle and examines the intermediality of the two narrative~ through a discussion of their shared engagement with cinematic devices. Ultimately, it suggests an affinity between cinematic spectatorship and urban experience as deployed by modernist city novels and films alike.