THE (UN)CRUCIFIED BODY: REPRESENTATIONS OF GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN THE VIA CRUCIS OF THE BODY BY CLARICE LISPECTOR
Clarice Lispector, gender and sexuality, feminist literature, patriarchalism, literary canon.
This present master's thesis intends to investigate how the discourses of gender and sexuality are represented in Clarice Lispector's (1920-1977) collection of short stories The via crucis of the body (1991). Her book, which explicitly explores human sexuality, especially feminine sexuality, has been considered by the critics as having little literary value, since it disassociates from all other works by Lispector, which focus on the subject of introspection. Further and more detailed research should be conducted on these micro-narratives that, although unusual to the stylistics of this writer, bluntly question the existing patriarchal society. It is important to highlight that we have selected two of her short stories, namely, He drank me up and Mauá square, which, for our intended analysis, seemed richer in gender and sexuality discourse. This research has been grounded on Antônio Cândido’s (1976) theoretical studies on literature and society, which propose an integrative critique on how elements external to the work are structured within the narrative. In addition, our theoretical framework relies on Foucault's (2015) contributions to the matter of human sexuality, and Judith Butler’s (2010) criticism to the traditional strand of feminist theory that are limited to replicating binary identities of gender (feminine / masculine) and sexuality ( heterosexual / homosexual).