ABSTRACT
In Belgian symbolist Georges Rodenbach’s novel Bruges-la-Morte (1892), the protagonist exemplifies the similarities between the collector and the flâneur striving to eternalize ephemeral moments. This chapter demonstrates how, by collecting images of women as eternal objects, these figures reveal the parallel development of commodity culture and modern masculinity both fueled by a desire to dominate and possess. Collecting images of the city, Rodenbach’s flâneur contemplates urban spaces as signs of looming death. The book object itself, enclosing photographs of Bruges, becomes a collection of the sights captured by the flâneur. This chapter examines the stakes of flânerie as collections of fetish objects and necrophilia.
