Sexuality and Being in the Poststructuralist Universe of Clarice Lispector: The Différance of Desire

by Earl E. Fitz

Overview

Driven by an unfulfilled desire for the unattainable, ultimately indefinable Other, the protagonists of the novels and stories of acclaimed Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector exemplify and humanize many of the issues central to poststructuralist thought, from the nature of language, truth, and meaning to the unstable relationships between language, being, and reality. In this book, Earl Fitz demonstrates that, in turn, poststructuralism offers important and revealing insights into all aspects of Lispector's writing, including her style, sense of structure, characters, themes, and socio-political conscience.

Fitz draws on Lispector's entire oeuvre—novels, stories, crônicas, and children's literature—to argue that her writing consistently reflects the basic tenets of poststructuralist theory. He shows how Lispector's characters struggle over and humanize poststructuralist dilemmas and how their essential sense of being is deeply dependent on a shifting, and typically transgressive, sense of desire and sexuality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780292789227
Publisher:	University of Texas Press
Publication date:	06/28/2010
Series:	Texas Pan American Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Earl E. Fitz is Professor of Portuguese, Spanish, and Comparative Literature and Director of the Program in Comparative Literature at Vanderbilt University.

Table of Contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Clarice Lispector and the Writing of Poststructuralism
• Chapter 2: A Semiotics of Being: Style, Structure, and Meaning in a Poststructural Key
• Chapter 3: The Erotics of Being: Self, Other, and Language
• Chapter 4: Characterizations, Relationships, and States of Being: Feminine, Masculine, Androgynous, and Nongendered
• Chapter 5: From l'Écriture Féminine to Littérature Engagée to Writing the (Semiotic) Body (Politic): The Sociopolitical Dimension of Lispector's Textes
• Chapter 6: Psychoanalysis and the Poststructural Anxieties of the Lispectorian Universe
• Conclusion
• Appendix 1: The Works of Clarice Lispector
• Appendix 2: In-text Abbreviations
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index

What People are Saying About This

Debra A. Castillo

Fitz is a well-established scholar whose work on Lispector is highly respected, and this is a well-focused and very knowledgeable study. One of the things I particularly like about this book is that it makes a case for reading Lispector in the light of poststructuralist theory without overwhelming the reader. (Debra A. Castillo, Professor of Romance Studies and Director of Latin American Studies Program, Cornell University)

Editorial Reviews

Drawing on Lispector's entire oeuvre- novels, stories, cronicas, and children's literature. Fitz demonstrates that post structuralism offers important and revealing insights into all aspects of Lispector's writing, including her style, sense of structure, characters, themes, and sociopolitical conscience.

New York Review of Books