Walking the Re-Enchanted City: Flânerie and the Aesthetics of Metamodernism in Caitriona Lally’s Eggshells

This article investigates the figure of the metamodern flâneuse in Caitriona Lally’s Eggshells, arguing that the novel reimagines urban experience through a fusion of the modernist tradition, a Romantic imagination and metamodernist sensibility. Delivered in a stream-of-consciousness style, the narrative follows Vivian – a socially isolated woman who believes she is a changeling – as she wanders contemporary Dublin in search of a portal to a fairy realm. Building on James and Seshagiri’s conception of metamodernism (2014) as a creative re-engagement with modernist legacies, and Vermeulen and van den Akker’s link between the metamodern structure of feeling and Romantic aesthetics (2010), this study recontextualises Lally’s protagonist within a broader framework that considers flânerie as a unique mode of engaging with the modern city. Through close textual analysis, the study demonstrates how Eggshells reconfigures the flâneur tradition to stage a psychological journey of self-definition that resists the disenchantment of rationalised urban life.