Research

Starting from the 1980s, sociological feminist studies (Wollf, 1985; Wilson, 2001) have debated the possibility to single out a female figure, the flâneuse, equivalent the male flâneur that famously emerged in the literature of the second half of the XIX Century.  Subsequent literary studies (Parsons, 2000) have argued that literary works of the beginning of the XX Century present a model of the flâneuse that challenges the gender stereotypes shaping the relationship between the subject and the city. Particular attention has been paid to the analysis of the flâneuse in Virginia Woolf's works, as first proposed by Rachel Bowlby (1991) with respect to Mrs Dalloway and the essay "Street Haunting". Deborah Parsons (2000) has extended the analysis to Woolf's Night and Day e The Years. Several further works have resumed and extended the analysis of the features and implications of Woolf's depiction of the flâneuse. 

Moving from a re-examination of the mentioned background, the research aims at tracing and rediscussing the features and the impact of the flâneuse along the following lines:

1. The mapping of the implicit and explicit gender stereotypes identified by Woolf in her fiction and non-fiction as elements that hinder women's appropriation of real and metaphorical spaces of independence. This will allow the examination of the sociocultural models and the linguistic elements inherent to the relationship between woman and the city.

2. the analysis of coeval Italian literary works (1900-1940) to verify the presence of female characters comparable to the Woolfian flâneuse (Mrs Dalloway, "Street Haunting"), taking into account the socio-cultural implications emerging from the comparison.

3. A century after the emergence of the literary figure of the flâneuse, can we consider the contemporary city a free and safe space for women? What gender and sociocultural stereotypes still shape women's role in society, and how have they changed over time? What are the actions that can be undertaken in education, social practices and urban policies to contrast gender asymmetries?