Un flâneur postcoloniale. Spazi e narrazioni in Blind Spot di Teju Cole

The concept of the postcolonial flâneur, which has become increasingly prominent in cultural criticism since the 1990s, relocates the figure of the flâneur from the capitals of European modernity to the globalized cities of the twenty-first century, exposing the colonial foundations of Western modernity and capitalism. This article reads Teju Cole's Blind Spot as a paradigmatic reconfiguration of that tradition. Combining photography and lyrical prose, Cole constructs a hybrid phototext in which images and words jointly interrogate the politics of space, vision, and memory. Prompted by the author's temporary loss of sight in one eye, the book reflects on both physiological and cultural blind spots, revealing how perception is shaped by embodied experience as well as by racial and colonial imaginaries. As an Afropolitan writer and photographer, Cole maps a world in which airports, hotel rooms, and cities become interconnected sites of belonging and displacement. Rather than reproducing fixed cartographies, Blind Spot invites readers to assemble their own counter-maps through a contrapuntal and flâneurial narrative that uncovers hidden histories and encourages new ways of seeing. The article follows this journey through three interconnected motifs: objects, interiors/exteriors, and the figure of the passer-by.