Clarice Lispector

Clarice Lispector Renata Barsanti

“Looked like Marlene Dietrich and wrote like Virginia Woolf” Mystery Myths and rumors Fascination

Biography • Birth in Ukraine in 1920 • Brazil • Mother’s death, Rio de Janeiro • Law School • Near to the Wild Heart

Biography Continued • Marriage • The Passion According to GH and Family Ties • Separation • Injury • The Hour of the Star, 1977

Family Ties • Stories: • “The Daydreams of a Drunk Woman” • “Love” • “The Chicken” • “Happy Birthday”

Language • Metaphor • “The sun, trapped in the blinds, shimmered on the wall like the strings of a guitar” (Lispector 28) • Generally simple, generates meaning • Precise • Puzzling

Sense of Place • “On the trees, the fruits were black and sweet as honey. On the ground there lay dry fruit stones full of circumvolutions like small rotted cerebrums. The bench was stained with purple sap. With gentle persistence the waters murmured. On the tree trunk the luxurious feelers of parasites fastened themselves. The rawness of the world was peaceful. The murder was deep. And death was not what one had imagined” (Lispector 43).

Characterization • Emotional epiphanies • Lack of change: “Love” • “Before getting into bed, as if she were snuffing a candle, she blew out that day’s tiny flame” (Lispector 48) • Meaning that stems from this: “The Chicken”

Dialogue, Point of View • Dialogue used sparingly • Shows changes in character, shows how things are normally • Third person, only sometimes limited • “Happy Birthday” - as her chain was choking her, she was mother to all of them, and, powerless in her chair, she heartily despised them…All those children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, who were nothing but the flesh of her flesh, she suddenly thought, as if she had spat…”

Questions?

Clarice Lispector