The 19th-century French poet Charles Baudelaire used the term flâneur to name “an observer of modern urban life . . . the man of leisure, the idler, the urban explorer, the connoisseur of the street” (Tate Museum). In this course we will define, interpret, and critically examine the term flâneur as representative of wandering, strolling, or traveling without a defined purpose. We will analyze what that tells us about human behavior throughout history, but also what the contemporary flâneur experience can tell us about today’s society in the United States and elsewhere. Course topics will include: the etymology of the term flâneur, or the history of this word’s use in literary and cultural studies; the act of wandering without a purpose as artistic inspiration, including: stream of consciousness writing, the genre of road movies, and Japanese forest bathing; encounters with Others, or the flâneur as an outsider or stranger through the lens of postcolonial cultural theory; and the modern flâneur, or the impact of technology on the flâneur and what it means to wander in public spaces today.