The motif of the looking: mysteries of the animality according to C. L.

Abstract

Through the reading of the short story “O búfalo”, republished by Clarice Lispector in Laços de Família (1960), this article proposes a study on the relation between the human and the non-human animals from the propositions of Jacques Derrida (2002) and Giorgio Agamben (2017). We postulate that may exist a correspondence between the woman of the story and some animals of the zoo, which figurate as reflection points in front of the human character’s fears and yearnings. This correspondence becomes acceptable as the narrative problematizes the theme of the animal alterity, as well as fictionally illustrates the intricated relation of animality between the human and the non-human. F or these reasons, we used the theorical premises of the Animal Studies in interface with the literary studies, as proposed by Maria Esther Maciel (2016) and some other critics who have already studied about the presence of the animals in Clarice’s literature, such as Silviano Santiago (2006) and Evando Nascimento (2012).