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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The Expatriate Experience, Self Construction, and the Flâneur in William Carlos Williams’ A Voyage to Pagany

Gill, Patrick W
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1182745707

Abstract Details

2007, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, English/Literature.
This thesis looks at the representation of expatriation in American literature and questions the extent to which it encompasses the various types of experience for American expatriate authors in the 1920s. In this project, I look at A Voyage to Pagany, a fictional expatriate account from the devotedly American William Carlos Williams and set it apart from other works of that era. I argue that Williams reappropriates the figure of Charles Baudelaire’s flâneur in his work to show that the true expatriate experience is not specific to milieus inhabited by artists but is contingent upon the act of writing. By excavating the tradition of the flâneur in his work, Williams questions the idea that the flâneur is specifically a Parisian figure. As opposed to theorists, such as Walter Benjamin, who are adamant in their stance that the flâneur must be Parisian, Williams prioritizes the wandering artist’s occupation with writing over the artist’s national allegiance. In Williams’ novel, the expatriate must move away from the writing circles of Paris in order to fully engage the imagination and enact the process of writing.
Kim Coates (Advisor)
56 p.
Literature, American
Flaneur; Flanerie; Pagany; A Voyage to Pagany; Williams; William Carlos; Expatriation; Milieu; Expatriate; Dandy; Bohemian; Baudelaire; Americanism; Travel Writing

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Gill, P. W. (2007). The Expatriate Experience, Self Construction, and the Flâneur in William Carlos Williams’ A Voyage to Pagany [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1182745707

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gill, Patrick. The Expatriate Experience, Self Construction, and the Flâneur in William Carlos Williams’ A Voyage to Pagany. 2007. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1182745707.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gill, Patrick. "The Expatriate Experience, Self Construction, and the Flâneur in William Carlos Williams’ A Voyage to Pagany." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2007. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1182745707

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1182745707
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© 2007, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.