Biography Essay

At the time of her death in 1977, Clarice Lispector was widely viewed not only as Brazil's leading writer but as one of the most extraordinary writers of narratives ever to emerge from Latin America. A brilliantly original stylist whose lyrically rendered and philosophically oriented texts revolutionized Brazilian fiction in the post World War II era, Lispector is also becoming celebrated as a prototypical practitioner of I'ecriture feminine (feminist writing) and of poststructuralist writing in general. Her reputation as an experimental novelist and short-story writer has spread well beyond the confines of Latin America. As this process of international recognition continues, it seems likely that Lispector will eventually gain her rightful place as one of Western literature's major late-twentieth-century authors.

Born in Tchetchelnik, a tiny Ukrainian village, on 10 December 1925, Lispector was the daughter of Pedro and Marian Lispector and immigrated with her family to Brazil when she...