Childhood memories in the autobiographical chronicles of Clarice Lispector: an analysis from the perspective of the Bakhtinian chronotope

Abstract

This article discusses the concept of chronotope, based on an analysis of Clarice Lispector's literary production. The central question is to investigate how the Bakhtinian concept of chronotope (Bakhtin, 2021) can be integrated to the discursive construction of the life stories present in the author’s work. Throughout the work, we propose: a) to clarify the concept of chronotope in light of other concepts developed by Bakhtin and the Circle; and b) to examine how this concept can be applied to the analysis of Lispector’s literature, reflecting on the way in which the space-time unity is discursively constructed in her life stories. Thus, we seek to understand how different chronotopes participate in the space-time construction of discourse. The analyses show that elements such as the chronotropic motif of the encounter, the chronotopes of the journey and the road, and the theme of metamorphosis offer fruitful paths to illuminate aspects of Clarice’s prose. It is concluded, therefore, that the application of the concept of chronotope can reveal significant nuances of Clarice Lispector's literary construction.