"The Passion According to G.H."

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the concepts of gender and sexuality in Clarice Lispector's novel, "The Passion According to G.H." The paper discusses how the book focuses almost exclusively on language and the interior discourse of a woman who, in the process of her monologue, comes to a new sense or realization of herself. The paper discusses Lispector's style and her portrayal of the identity of G.H.

From the Paper:

"Thus, Lispector's text relates in many ways with Irigaray's and Butler's feminist theories. First of all, G. H.'s identity at first is described as an identical copy of her life circumstances. She is a seemingly independent woman, well-to-do and unmarried and she is not tied down by great responsibilities. Nevertheless, she is obviously not free, as she lives in a kind of numbing conventional routine, performing every act in accordance with the requirements of society and history. In the maid-room, she first encounters otherness and she significantly attempts a communion with the space itself and with the cockroach as well. After this experience, she begins a long and direct dialog with her self, and it is through performing the discourse that she begins to locate her own identity. Moreover, she attempts to bare herself of all the accumulated stereotypes and conventions, thus creating an interior space of her own. It is very significant that she creates her own interior space in the space that used to be inhabited by another. Thus, the text prefigures the way in which gender identity has to bared of conventions before the feminine discourse becomes genuine."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Lispector, Clarice. The Passion According to G. H. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1989
• Rivkin, Julie and Michael Ryan. Literary Theory: An Anthology. New York: Blackwell Publishing, 2004

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