Instabilité dans l’imaginaire de Jean Lorrain : Échos et reflets dans Monsieur de Phocas

Monsieur de Phocas is the most celebrated of Lorrain’s novels and consists of thirty-five chapters in the form of a fictititous diary. The short introduction presents the protagonist of the novel: duc de Fréneuse, alias Phocas, who seeks to liberate himself from his anxiety. We firstly analyze the paradoxes of Lorrain’s conception of the decadent hero and his somewhat ambiguous nature which is underlined by the plot’s features of roman initiation. Yet the blurred statements of Phocas and his observance of decadent topoi contrast with his critical, almost moralist approach to his contemporaries. We suggest reading the novel as the awakening of the hero’s consience: as if the presence of “je ne sais quoi” were to be relegated by a strong will resulting in a life changing decision. This shift testifies to the affiliation of the novel to the vitalist movement.