ABSTRACT
This chapter is based on a lecture that I gave in Liège, and therefore I think it appropriate to commence with reference to one of the famous sons of that town, George Simenon, the creator of Detective Inspector Maigret. In his novel Les anneaux de Bicêtre, Simenon (1963) tells the story of René Maugras, a man hospitalised because of a severe stroke. Maugras is paralysed and cannot speak, but, more importantly, he has lost his sense of time. To a large extent, the novel deals with Maugras’ experiences as he regains his temporal orientation. On the very first page we learn that “to Maugras there is neither day nor hour”. He hears the chimes that strike the hour but he does not try to count them. On the very next morning, he is uncertain whether days or weeks have passed, and he still is not interested in the precise time of day. However, a short time later, having realised that he has awakened just before 06:00 two days running, he begins to wonder whether it was by chance or whether it was due to some mechanical intervention of his unconscious.
