ABSTRACT
At first glance, a study comparing Xavier de Maistre's Voyage autour de ma chambre [Journey around my bedroom] with fragments from Fernando Pessoa/Bernardo Soares's Livro do Desassossego [Book of Disquiet] would seem unusual at the least. Xavier de Maistre and Bernardo Soares both use the device of the imaginary journey as a means of attempting to deal with dissatisfaction and boredom. His Voyage describes in minute detail the furniture in his room, and it provides him with a focus for his energies and the opportunity to philosophize. This chapter commences the comparative study with a contextualization of the imaginary and humoristic journeys as narrative tropes. It explores the extent to which the two 'voyage' texts in question here conform to the conventions of the imaginary journey. The chapter employs a Lacanian analysis of the texts to argue that Soares and de Maistre use the imaginary journey in similar ways, but to quite different effect, to contribute to their respective subjectivities.
