La (con)quête de l’identité dans la ville-dédale de Guy Vaes
The (Con)quest of Identity in Guy Vaes’ Maze-City

Summary/Abstract: This paper sets out to analyze the identity issue, the character and city metamorphosis, as well as the presence of myths in L’Usurpateur (The Usurper), a novel by the francophone Belgian writer Guy Vaes. In L’Usurpateur, he presents a wandering character who, after having abused a Harlequin at the age of seventeen, is strongly affected by this extreme memory. Hans’s entire existence now evolves as a continuous search (the quest): he tries to understand what urged him on that holiday to rape a faceless individual of undetermined gender. As a result, in this novel, walks are an opportunity to have a fresh look on all things; they have initiation and discovery virtues. Thus, the city reminds of the maze which forces the passionate walker to take the same routes over and over again. This paper insists on the “distortions” of the urban space as well as on the (dis)simulation of the main character and the specular effect.

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