A possibilidade do movimento e a persistência da falha em O Lustre e A Maçã no Escuro, de Clarice Lispector

Abstract

This dissertation aims to produce a comparative reading between two novels written by Clarice Lispector, namely, O lustre (first published in 1946) and A maçã no escuro (1961). In this sense, this analysis is based on issues related to exile and movement as a nomadic via, going through the themes of existence, experience and testimony. Thus, here a certain theorization by Jean-Luc Nancy (1996) is considered, in which exile is seen as a condition of existence; something that relies, then, on the impossibility of a given individual to define himself/herself, since his/her act of existing, that is, his/her exile, does not have a starting or ending point, for his/her exile does not depend on a banishment. In the same way, the conception of nomadism, by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari (1997), is related to the possibility of a movement established in three moments: territorialization, deterritorialization and reterritorialization. As we consider that these perspectives are familiar with each other, we also build a notion of failure of the subject (either in his/her own definition, in relation to language or even in his/her interaction with the world around him/her), functionalized from the dialogue between such concepts and the literary works mentioned above. Thus, we articulate these notions with the novels, keeping a great interest in Virginia and Martim, its respective protagonists. In this effort, we think that it is possible to perceive opposite movements that point to the same direction, which revolves around the questioning of the subject, language and the world. The matter of a persistent failure is then based on these three instances, since Virginia, in O lustre, tries to understand the world according to her own language, and Martim, on the opposite side, seeks to build a new world with an unprecedented language - and both experiences seem to be incomplete.