Ethics in literature: reading Clarice Lispector's "Mineirinho"

Abstract

Through a reading of Clarice Lispector's "Mineirinho", the author tries to depict the constitution of the individual self, as explained by the psychoanalytical theory. The analysis and interpretation of Lispector's text identifies stylistic and thematic manoeuvers which intend to highlight its ethical and aesthetical implications. Writing a comment on the murder, by policemen, of a notorious criminal in nineteen-sixties Rio de Janeiro, Lispector casts a shadow of doubt over some ideological presumptions habitually taken for granted, and subverts political and social categories which intend to absolute validity. Within the author's interpretative frames, this text also queries the concepts of normality and madness, as well as the relationship between social history and biography.