Distance: the Flâneuse’s Path From Alienation to Wholeness in Mrs. Dalloway

Abstract

This research focuses on the image of the flâneuse in Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway. It aims to explore how women seek identity and draw strength from ordinary life by adjusting the distance between the self and the external world. By applying George Simmel's concept of distance, the research reveals that modernity offers women the freedom to step away from their confining daily roles and become the flâneuses to see and to experience the 'others'. By maintaining a delicate balance between detachment and involvement, flâneuses experience flexible physical and psychological distance which endows them with a unique aesthetic perspective. The aesthetic dimension helps them extract inspiration and strength from the everyday life. Different from the masculine flâneurs, who tend to objectify others, women construct a community of their own through the action of looking and building up. Their empathetic capability makes it easier for them to cross the distance between people and objects, thus transcending the distance from alienation to wholeness. The flâneuse’s experience in Mrs. Dalloway significantly contributes to the presentation of women’s experience in urban life. It reveals the complexity of social life and women's inner world, enriching the perspective for literary research on women’s agency in modernity.