Derrière la pensée

La philosophie de Clarice Lispector

Marcia Sá Cavalcante Schuback(Södertörn University)

Translated by Renaud Barbaras

A major figure in 20th-century Brazilian literature, Clarice Lispector (1920–1977) is approached here from the novel angle of a “poetics of thought.” This is not a discussion of the philosophical motifs underlying her literary work, nor is it a debate between philosophy and literature; rather, it is an attempt to show what it means to think literarily. For Clarice Lispector, thinking literarily means bringing to light a thought in the process of being formed, a thought in the process of thinking itself. This thought in action refers to an existence that is no longer the attribute of a substance or the actualization of a power, but which merges with its own act: an existence in the process of being formed, in the process of existing. This is why the question of the meaning of being in this gerund (“in the process of...”) is at the heart of this book. As it is its own act, this existence necessarily has a transitive meaning: it makes itself exist, it “exists itself” and thereby exists other existences. Thus, Clarice Lispector's entire body of work can be understood as a grammar of transitive existence. Far from proposing a new philosophy of existence, she calls for meditation in action; she invites thought to leave philosophy behind and allow itself to be fertilized by the reality that is being.