Milli mála - 2022, Síða 145

MILLI MÁLA
144 Milli mála 14/2/2022
Abstract
A Discreet Exit Through the Back Door
The Author and the Creation of Woman in Clarice
Lispector’s A hora da estrela
This paper deals with the last work of fiction, written by Brazilian
author Clarice Lispector in her lifetime, A hora da estrela, or Hour of
the Star. A complex work of fiction, though small in size, which might
be termed a metafictional novel, a self-conscious narrative, or a story
of a story which addresses directly its own creation. This is a story of
a story, for one of Lispector’s main creations is the narrator Rodrigo
S.M. who becomes the author, creates the character of Macebéa and at
the same time himself. Therefore, one could even talk about a kind of
Genesis. The book revolves in part around the relationship between
the author and creation, creator and character, and raises complex
and persistent questions about the creative process, fiction and the
other side of the mirror; reality, society, the world. This is a story
that deals directly with fiction, casting a magical light on love and
creation, life and death, reality and creativity. It casts a special light
on the various levels of narrative on which the novel is built, where
the boundaries between levels are drawn into the fiction themselves,
where the author, implied author, protagonist and reader collide and
nearly merge. At heart it is a work written by a female author about
a male author who creates a female character at the same time as he
creates himself. This article examines the “male author” within the
story and the creation of the protagonist, a female character; a process
marked by the relationship between love and destruction, which is
further complicated when the reader is drawn into that relationship
along with the real-life author, Clarice Lispector.
Keywords: Clarice Lispector, Hour of the Star, Brazilian literature, meta-
fiction, literary analysis
LAUMAST ÚT UM BAKDYRNAR
10.33112/millimala.14.1.6