Keetje trottin (1921) is a Dutch classic that was long out of print. Although the story is a fictionalised autobiography about the childhood of the working-class girl Keetje Oldema in 19th-century Amsterdam, writer Neel Doff wrote the novel in French. Cultural studies scholar and historian Anna Geurts translated the novel from French into Dutch in 2021.
Keetje is an extraordinary example of a working-class girl at the time. Her life is not easy: the book touches on themes such as sexual violence and poverty. But it is also important to show that Keetje's life is not all doom and gloom, Geurts believes. 'The lives of working-class women of the past deserve to be remembered not just for their misery or even their resistance but for their pleasures, too,' the historian argues in a recent article published in the journal Signs.
Flânerie
The term flânerie, described by art critic Charles Baudelaire, sums up this urban pleasure well, says Geurts. 'In simple terms, a flânerie is someone who strolls through the city, observing passers-by and their surroundings. But the typical flâneur is presented in literature as a financially comfortable, well-educated, white or European man. This man is said to possess characteristics that nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women or workers supposedly lacked: access to the street, leisure, and the ability to enjoy the urban spectacle rather than be the spectacle.'
According to Geurts, however, Neel Doff's semi-autobiographical novel shows that flânerie is not just for affluent white men. Much of Keetje's life takes place on the streets: in her work as an errand girl, she brings factory workers their hot lunch, delivers medicines for a pharmacy and delivers hats for a milliner. Keetje takes time, often even during her working day, to describe her carefree flânerie on the street:
The redoubt, bordered by trees, looked out across canals. This is where I would chase rats and stretch out over the water to see where they had passed; I was quite surprised that they could breathe under water … ‘They aren’t herrings, let’s see …’ and, using a branch, I would muck around in the water to see whether I could not fish out any drowned rats … The next moment, the poppies that were unfolding on the quayside attracted my attention.
Reversing meaning
Keetje teaches us that it was also possible for women in her circumstances to flâne. Geurts therefore proposes to reconsider the meaning of the concept of flânerie, from the well-to-do male type "the flâneur" to a way of having fun accessible to all. With their fresh take on the concept of flânerie, Geurts shows that sometimes we need to redefine terms to uncover other stories and experiences. The lives of other groups of people of the time can also be revised in this way. 'When flânerie is not defined by the able-bodied, affluent, male white walker, it becomes a possibility for everyone,' says Geurts.
Anna P.H. Geurts (2022): Flânerie as a Mode of Pleasure: Lessons from a Working-Class Flâneuse. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 48(1), 197-227.
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