Here are one hundred and eleven pages of enjoyment of Clarice Lispector’s works. Unlike the kind of literary criticism of her work that we are accustomed to reading, Roberto Corrêa dos Santos, in his broad interpretation spread over twelve chapters, some extensive, others just two pages – but fortunately converting the reading into hours of reflection–, guides the reader on a flight free of dangers, ensuring total freedom without requiring the reader to hold on to hard theoretical supports. Instead he constructs, with smooth but underscored movements, readings and de-readings, illuminating several of Clarice’s texts with integrity and grandeur. To his credit he does not suffocate the texts.
Proceeding through the lyricism Roberto Corrêa dos Santos uses in his presentation, the more attentive reader feels the pleasurable need to stop, breathe, and – if so inclined – underline the text due to the intensity of the readings. It is not difficult to agree with the author who, in glossing over just one title or another in Clarice’s production, manages to not repeat what at this point is already known from what literary criticism of the past few decades has endeavored to examine. Roberto goes to the boundary of what Clarice’s texts suggest, guarding himself from possible mistakes influenced by exaggerated affirmations. Clarice’s own writing, for example, is effectively an instruction manual for “detaching” from norms and stereotypes. It is this writing that institutes a new knowledge that for us cannot – must not – be, according to the author, “civilized” or “deprived of the happy anguish it causes.”
Upon reading Na cavidade do rochedo (In the Cavity of the Rock: The Post-Philosophy of Clarice Lispector), we are promptly placed in the condition of explorers-readers. Between enchantment and astonishment, we are ready to face Clarice’s cave—or work—, which by its very nature is ferocious, slippery, and does not allow itself to be taken in its entirety.
Na cavidade do rochedo: a pós-filosofia de Clarice Lispector (In the Cavity of the Rock: The Post-Philosophy of Clarice Lispector) is a study published exclusively in electronic format and available for download here.
See also
by Bruno Cosentino
Every year, in the liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church, Carnival is followed by Lent, a period in which the faithful withdraw from mundane life to dedicate themselves to sacrifices, charity, and prayer.
by Equipe IMS
Clarice Lispector spent her childhood in Recife, but at the age of 15 she moved with her father and two sisters to Rio de Janeiro. It was in the then capital of Brazil that the writer lived her youth and early adult life: she completed high school, graduated from law school, had her first professional experiences in the press, got married, and in 1943, released her first book Near to the Wild Heart.
by Bruno Cosentino
Correio para mulheres (Women’s Mail), edited by Aparecida Maria Nunes, includes texts by Clarice Lispector directed towards a female readership and written in three distinct moments in the writer’s career.
by Equipe IMS
On December 10th, IMS Rio celebrates Clarice Lispector’s birthday. This year, we will present, in a single screening, the short film Perto de Clarice (Close to Clarice), by João Carlos Horta, from 1982, in a new digital version based on the 35mm original preserved by the Audiovisual Technical Center (CTAv). After the film screening, there will be a conversation between the writer Heloisa Buarque de Holanda, who was involved in the making of the film and is the director's widow, and Teresa Montero, author of the most recent biography of the writer, À procura da própria coisa (In Search of the Thing Itself – Rocco, 2021), mediated by the IMS literature consultant, the poet Eucanaã Ferraz.
by Equipe IMS
The film Clarice's Days in Washington captures a very different and decisive moment in the life and work of the writer, when she lived in the American capital with her family, between 1952 and 1959. In addition to a significant number of unpublished photographs – which record her domestic environment and interactions with friends – there are precious images filmed during a public event, in which the writer, her husband Maury Gurgel Valente, their son Paulo, in addition to friends of the couple appear.
by Patrick Gert Bange
In a small, vast, and brilliant book called Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing, by Hélène Cixous (1993), the author is taken to three schools by writers that she loves: the School of the Dead, the School of Dreams, and the School of Roots. One of the books that transport Cixous to the School of Dreams is Clarice Lispector’s second published novel, The Chandelier.
