Clarice Lispector: unreal like music

Abstract

In this chapter my intention is to highlight aspects of the relationships we can glimpse between music and writing in Clarice Lispector’s universe, starting out by selecting illustrative examples drawn from the full range of her published works. I will include biographical information relating to the author’s experiences of and with music that illuminate the reading of her texts. The presence of music in her works will be discussed using a primarily thematic approach in order to identify patterns which, to a greater or lesser extent, express the works' wider potential meanings. I will also consider other fields which bring up relevant and related points such as narrative structure and elements that can be considered musical in the process of composition of the books, and style, more specifically the rhythmical effects of repetitions, of the reiteration of segments of text to create similarity or contrast. As I read through Clarice's oeuvre, I discover several ways in which, quite clearly, the presence of music hints at the author's concept of how literature works; particularly, the art of composing the novel and short story. Although occurring in her shorter, more fragmentary texts, it is above all in the novels that I am able to glimpse different literary techniques which echo musical conventions and perspectives which link music and words.