The lexical field of visual perception in The French Lieutenant's Woman by John Fowles

Abstract

In The French Lieutenant's Woman the lexical field of visual perception is strongly foregrounded. The appearance of so many significant vision words, both the superordinate terms and their hyponyms, is related to the creation of the characters and to the development of the narrative. This article sets out the lexical field of visual perception, its hierarchies, oppositions and metaphorical projections, both at the beginning and in the appendices, showing how this semantic domain is covered in the novel. We go on to suggest that this foregrounding has a literary purpose, and indicate five distinct functions. It can also be explained by the peculiar genesis of this novel as a visual image, attested to by Fowles himself. The novelist's use of visual perception terms throws light on how a postmodem writer of self-conscious fiction works through making choices inside and outside restricted fields.