The Visual Quest in Jean Lorrain's Monsieur de Phocas

Abstract

In his 1901 novel, Monsieur de Phocas, Jean Lorrain illustrates the Decadent aesthetic of narcissism, relating the desire to look to the desire to display, and establishing the complementarity of scopophilia and exhibitionism. For Lorrain's character, life is a search for mythical,forbidden things. Reflected in the directionless narrative, the hero embarks for exotic places. Privileging the unlocatable object and unreachable destination, he enjoys the trip, the search, the visual quest.A pointless journey, Lorrain's narrative only ends with its transcription, whenlife's dynamism is exchanged for a retrospective travelogue. Wanderlust gives way to exhaustion and ennui, becoming a recitation bequeathed to reader-offspring. Having documented the itinerary of the character's roving eye, the story is frozen in the performance of its disclosure. Lorrain'shero stops living in order to narrate, abandoning the wish to see in order to indulge the wish to show.