Marvels & Tales

Susina, Jan.
The Rebirth of the Postmodern Flaneur: Notes on the Postmodern Landscape of Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat
Marvels & Tales - Volume 16, Number 2, 2002, pp. 188-200

Wayne State University Press

Using Walter Benjamin's concept of the flâneur as well as the theories of postmodern geography, this essay situates Francesca Lia Block's Weetzie Bat (1989) as both a literary fairy tale for adolescents and a realistic description of postmodern Los Angeles. While Block's "Shangri-L.A." is influenced by traditional fairy tales and film, it simultaneously functions as a travelogue and memoir of Block's childhood in Los Angeles. Weetzie Bat confirms Jack Zipes's assertion that fairy tales embody an historical context and the ideological assumptions of the period in which they are produced.