Entre o ser e o narrar: um estudo do sujeito em a hora da estrela, de Clarice Lispector

Abstract

This master’s dissertation presents a philosophical-literary analysis of The Hour of the Star (1977), by Clarice Lispector, focusing on the question of subjectivity within the narrative. More than four decades after the author’s death, her work continues to inspire multiple critical approaches, ranging from modernist interpretations and stream of consciousness techniques to feminist, biographical, and cultural criticism. The central objective of this study is to explore the intersection between literature and philosophy through the figure of Macabéa, the protagonist, whose marginalized subjectivity exposes tensions involving representation, identity, and alterity. The concept of epiphany, as discussed by Benedito Nunes (1973), guides the interpretation of moments of clarity within the narrative and highlights the role of the narrator Rodrigo S. M., whose attempt to give voice to the protagonist raises ethical questions about the representation of the Other. The dissertation is structured in three chapters: the first maps the critical reception of Lispector’s work; the second examines the philosophical foundations that underlie her literature; and the third investigates the narrator’s role and the fragmented subjectivity of the characters, through theoretical perspectives from Sartre, Beauvoir, Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari, and Lévinas. Macabéa is interpreted as a decentralized, silenced, and invisible subject, shaped by exclusionary discourses and far from the Cartesian model of a rational and autonomous individual. The study also engages with Hans Robert Jauss’s (1994) aesthetics of reception, analyzing how Lispector’s provocative writing impacts the reader and invites reflection. Ultimately, this research demonstrates how The Hour of the Star challenges traditional conceptions of subjectivity and urges a rethinking of recognition politics and the ethics of representation in contemporary society.