Reinventing futures: the hostile city and a new flâneur in the portuguese hypercontemporary narrative

Abstract

The hyper-contemporary Portuguese novel presents, both formally and thematically, a range of elements that pose significant challenges to literary criticism, which, in turn, must revise and adapt its theoretical frameworks of analysis. These newly produced works demand, as Alan Shapiro and Ana Paula Arnaut claim, renewed outlooks and fresh analytical perspectives. This study therefore aims to explore one of many axes radiating from this complex corpus of texts: the perception of the city, of the urban center, as a space of exhaustion and oppression. While this theme is by no means novel within the literary tradition, its recurrence and intensification in very recent publications is noteworthy, reflecting broader perceptions of contemporary global reality. In this context, the study will draw on examples of literary works that explore this recurring motif, portraying characters adrift in large urban spaces – overwhelmed by technology and the pressures of labor productivity – as well as depicting the urban environment itself as fundamentally detrimental to human well-being. Authors such as Joana Bértholo, Catarina Gomes, Manuel Bivar, Rui Couceiro, Ivone Mendes da Silva, among others, will be considered. What emerges in these texts is a redefinition of nature as survival mechanism, accompanying the advent of a new kind of flâneur. Theoretical grounding will be provided by thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Marc Augé, Gilles Lipovetsky, Ana Paula Arnaut, Byung-Chul Han, Robert Park, and Zygmunt Bauman.