Clarice Lispector in the Foreign Legion

Abstract

Despite her recent recognition and translation into many languages, despite being crucial reading in the context of 1970s feminism, and despite being considered one of the most important writers of Brazil, Clarice Lispector is rarely present in critical texts on world literature. This article aims to address Lispector’s marginal presence in world literature, underscoring her strangeness, her foreignness, the condição estrangeira that is central to her literature. Looking at Lispector’s novels and columns, I trace this condition as the point of departure for a new critical map of world literature.