Abstract
The unprecedented rise of modern cities since the latter half of the nineteenth century has stressed the twofold aspect of urban living: progress and poverty. The urban imaginary has responded to such social circumstances by constructing numerous narratives of crime and investigation. Relying on the flâneur figure as a theoretical construct of urbanity, this chapter looks into two narratives of the kind: The Midnight Meat Train by Ryûhei Kitamura (2008) and Bernard Rose’s Candyman (1992). The analysis explores the process through which the flâneur or flâneuse as disinterested observers of urban life gradually grow into the roles of both the detective and criminal, the hunter and the hunted.
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Filmography
Candyman. Directed by Rose Bernard. TriStar Pictures, 1992.
The Midnight Meat Train. Directed by Kitamura Ryûhei. Lionsgate, 2008.
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Parezanović, T., Lukić, M. (2020). Dark Urbanity. In: Bloom, C. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33136-8_5
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