“What Happens [in Vegas]”: Performing the Post-Tourist<i>Flâneur</i>in “New York” and “Paris”

Abstract

This essay explores Las Vegas as a stage-set for tourist performance. Initially, I outline Walter Benjamin's notion of the flâneur as a framework for my study before addressing two foci of this paper: (1) the site of Las Vegas as “omnitopian” enclosure and (2) the performance of Las Vegas through post-tourism. Following this analysis, I discuss consequences of inauthentic post-tourist play as imagined by critics of “mere pleasure.”