Geographies of melancholia and complex pleasure : Black flânerie in Edward P. Jones's "A New Man" and "Lost in the City"

This article explores how Black geographies shape experiences of melancholia and pleasure in Edward P. Jones's Lost in the City (1992). It examines how movement through Washington, D.C. — understood as Black flânerie — becomes a means of processing complex emotions in African American life. In "A New Man," Woodrow and Rita Cunningham struggle with melancholia after their teen daughter's disappearance, using the city to navigate grief, though they cannot fully move forward. Similarly, in "Lost in the City," Lydia Walsh, a successful Yale-educated lawyer, directs the driver to intentionally lose her in the city. Her movement through familiar landmarks reflects her negotiation of loss, shock, and memory in the aftermath of her mother's death. Through the application of the concept of Black flâneur to these characters, the article demonstrates how slow loss, melancholia, and complex pleasure are woven into the fabric of Jones's Black literary geographies.