The Hour of the Star
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Clarice Lispector's novel The Hour of the Star tells the story of a man who writes a novel and the story of the woman about whom he writes. The writer, who is given the name Rodrigo S. M., explains his feelings and motivations about writing the story, which he clearly identifies as fiction, of a poor, uneducated, sickly immigrant from Brazil's impoverished Northeastern region who goes to Rio de Janeiro. Her life is as nearly empty of events, relationships, and even ordinary needs as a human life can be. Yet, in the course, of the novel, the character, MacabTa, arrives at some degree of understanding--of the universe, of her existence, of god--that surpasses what her frustrated creator can achieve. While MacabTa's story is completely engrossing, it fights for space with the struggles of her intrusive narrator-creator. Both characters function as part of the author's own struggle to understand both the process of creation that drives her and the meanings of existence that trouble MacabTa so little but are, nonetheless, made clearer to her than to Lispector. The book is an exercise in authorial frustration that is also a profound meditation on the limits of human understanding. Lispector (1925-77), one of the most significant Brazilian writers of the twentieth century, was born in the Ukraine to Russian Jewish parents who emigrated to Brazil within two months of their daughter's birth. The family settled in Recife, where Lispector spent most of her childhood, and later
. . .
proach to religion is usually mocking and parodic. She has little use for the tissue of lies and superstitions that block people's perceptions and control their thoughts. But in the case of MacabTa, Schiminovich argues, Lispector evokes the written works of Catholic mystics such as St. John of the Cross and St. Theresa of Jesus in a way that is "admiring" and not at all parodic (153). The difference is that Lispector is writing about an experience (MacabTa's) that happens without the impetus of any conventional religious notions. The girl has been affected, to some degree, by the behavior of her hypocritically religious aunt. But MacabTa has not arrived at her mystical experience out of a specific desire to serve Jesus--or any of the other stimuli invoked by traditional religious mystics. What MacabTa does share with other mystics, however, is her sickliness and emptiness--a combination of physical and mental states that is conducive to mystical experience.
The association of mystical visions with illness and states of extreme physical deprivation is the thing that MacabTa has in common with the Catholic mystics Schiminovich cites. They also practiced the conquering of their repulsion toward all aspects of creation--kissi
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
Rodrigo Throughout, Lispector Rodrigo, MacabTa Lispector, Clarice Lispector's, Theresa Jesus, Olfmpico MacabTa, Marilyn Monroe, Madame Carlota, Lispector Schiminovich, Star Rodrigo, mystical experience, moment death, catholic mystics, macabta's experience, author character, macabta's story, religious mystics, identification author, identification author character, giovanni pontiero, rio de janeiro, york directions, giovanni pontiero york, macabta's experience understood, directions 1988 89-96,
Approximate Word count = 3023
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page)
More Essays on The Hour of the Star
|
Customer Service
to Over
32,000 Professionally Written Papers!!!
