Form and Content

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Clarice Lispector’s Family Ties is a collection of thirteen stories, six of which had been published in a previous collection, Alguns Contos, in 1952. Like much of Lispector’s fiction, and particularly her early stories, these tales are intense and sharply focused narratives in which a single character (almost always female) is suddenly and dramatically forced to deal with a question concerning an integral part of her existence. Save for a single act that prompts each story’s character to look inward, there is little action in the stories, as the author seeks not to develop a traditional, action-filled plot but instead to capture a moment in the character’s life and, much more important, the character’s reaction to that moment, as she (and occasionally he) is shocked out of complacency and forced into a situation that will lead her to self-examination and, in most cases, self-discovery. The epiphany-centered content of the stories, combined with Lispector’s subjective, highly metaphorical, even lyrical prose, produces a collection of stories that read and communicate to the reader more like poetry than prose.

Arranged in no apparent particular order within the collection, the stories that make up Family Ties are “The Daydreams of a Drunken Woman,” “Love,” “The Chicken,” “The Imitation of the Rose,” “Happy Birthday,” “The Smallest Women in the World,” “The Dinner,” “Preciousness,” “Family Ties,” “The Beginnings of a Fortune,” “Mystery in São Cristóvão,” “The Crime of the Mathematics Professor,” and “The Buffalo.”

Perhaps the most representative of them is “Love,” which is also one of Lispector’s most famous and most anthologized stories (one critic, Earl Fitz, has called it prototypical of all Lispector’s short fiction). Its protagonist, Anna, is a contented middle-class wife whose world is stable, controlled, predictable, happily based on order. Taking the tram home from shopping one afternoon, however, she spots a blind man chewing gum. Inexplicably, Anna’s ordered world is shaken by the sight of the man. Disoriented, she gets off the tram well past her stop and finds herself in the relatively primitive and hostile setting of a botanical garden, where the inauthenticity of her world is stripped away. She makes her way home and attempts to resume her normal patterns, but though she is back in the security of her predictable domestic lifestyle, she has been profoundly affected by her epiphany and wonders if “the experience unleashed by the blind man [will] fill her days” or if the stable, controlled, predictable, ordered routine of her domestic world will protect her from “the danger of living.”

Another notable story in Family Ties that follows much the same pattern is “Preciousness,” in which a girl going through puberty experiences fear, confusion, and, most important, an altered sense of self after an ambiguous encounter with some boys. In “Happy Birthday,” an eighty-nine-year-old woman, surrounded by her family on her birthday, observes the offspring she has produced and, much to the shock of those in attendance, spits on the floor to show her lack of respect. Other stories of note include “The Crime of the Mathematics Professor,” whose protagonist buries (and later exhumes) a stray dog he has found dead in a desperate attempt to relieve himself of the guilt he feels for having once abandoned his own dog; “Family Ties,” in which a woman struggles with both positive and negative aspects of the love that binds families together; and “The Buffalo,” in which a woman whose love has been rejected by a man roams a zoo in search of an animal that will show her how to hate.

Context

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Clarice Lispector...

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was the first of a number of important and critically acclaimed women writers (among them Isabel Allende, Luisa Valenzuela, and Elena Poniatowska) to come on the scene in Latin American literature during the second half of the twentieth century.Family Ties (and particularly the stories that deal with female protagonists) clearly stands as the first important collection of short fiction of this group of writers, who have in common gender and, to one degree or another, gender-based concerns.

There is no question that most of the stories in Family Ties deal either with women’s issues or with more genderless issues from a woman’s perspective. Many of them, for example, at least touch on the female protagonist’s role as wife (“Love”), daughter (“Family Ties”), young woman (“Preciousness”), mother (“Love,” “Family Ties,” “Happy Birthday”), or lover (“The Buffalo”), and the lives of the characters as defined in large part by their relationships with men, including husbands (“Love”), sons (“Family Ties”), and lovers (“The Buffalo”). Often the epiphanies the female characters experience make them see their lives, including these relationships (and the men in them), more clearly. As mentioned above, however, most of the characters return to their everyday existence without, it seems, making any permanent change, either because it would not be socially acceptable to do so or because it would simply be too frightening.

Though many of the stories in Family Ties do indeed deal, to one degree or another, with women and women’s issues, not all of them do so (“The Crime of the Mathematics Professor” and “The Dinner,” for example). In fact, a more common thread in the collection than the treatment and situation of women is the experience of epiphany and self-discovery, which is common to the protagonists of virtually all the stories, regardless of gender. This fact does not diminish the role of women and women’s issues in Family Ties, but if one focuses only on the woman’s angle in the collection, one runs the risk of classifying the stories, at least with respect to theme and content, only according to that category. To do so would be unfortunate, since even though many stories in Family Ties clearly speak to the situation of women, these same stories, as well as the others in the collection, also speak to the human condition in general and to the very question of existence.

Finally, just as it would be unjust to view stories such as “Love” and “Preciousness” only as stories about women, it would be equally unjust to view Lispector and Family Ties only within the context of women’s literature. Lispector is not only a major Latin American woman writer; but also a major Latin American writer, period, without regard to gender. Family Ties is almost universally hailed as a masterpiece of Brazilian literature. Its stories did much to revolutionize the short-story genre in Brazilian literature, not simply for the women writers who followed Lispector but for all writers in this genre. Lispector’s place and that of Family Ties, then, are secure and deserved not only in the context of women’s literature but also within the broader scope of Brazilian literature and Latin American literature.

Historical Context

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The 1960s in Brazil

Brazil's economy has historically relied heavily on the global coffee market. Gaining independence from Portugal in 1822, Brazil's economy has since been supported by coffee, although the country has recently diversified its agricultural and service sectors. Notably, Brazil was the only South American nation to deploy troops to Europe during World War II to combat the Axis powers, leveraging both its resources and a significant expatriate European population. The economy grew rapidly under stable leadership in the late 1950s and early 1960s. In 1960, President Juscelino Kubitschek established Brasilia as the new capital to promote economic development in Brazil's central region. Clarice Lispector wrote several "cronicas" (chronicles) in the news, praising Brasilia and its architecture. In 1964, a military coup aimed to address political unrest among communist, democratic, and republican factions and to stabilize the economy. However, this led to two decades of military rule and a period of police repression against political reformers.

Despite achieving political equality with the right to vote in 1937, Brazilian women in the 1960s continued to struggle against the stereotype of being exotic, tanned, and compliant "tropical" women. Like in many other countries, women in Brazil faced inequality in the workforce, with their status perpetuated by sexual stereotypes. Lispector was exceptional for completing a law degree in the 1950s and being the first female journalist at a major news agency. Her stories do not explicitly critique gender politics but depict urban Brazilian women as trapped by both societal expectations and their own lack of action. In a 1979 interview, Lispector remarked that the condition of Brazilian women "still leaves much to be desired; she is still enslaved."

Modernist and Postmodern Literature Movements

The 1922 Week of Modern Art in São Paulo, Brazil, ignited a modernist movement among Brazilian writers and artists that endured for fifty years, having an impact similar to the Impressionist Exhibit of 1874 in Paris. This event not only introduced Cubism to Brazil but also sparked interest in the country's folkloric history and indigenous arts. A new wave of artists emerged, eager to infuse their work with elements like "light, air, ventilators, airplanes, workers' demands, idealism, motors, factory smokestacks, blood, speed, dream," as described by Brazilian poet Menotti del Pichia. Marxist and naturalist authors like Jorge Amado and Graciliano Ramos wrote about the poverty and struggles of Brazil's arid northeast, infusing Brazilian literature with political and social themes. The 1960s marked a literary "Boom" across Latin America, including Brazil. Modernism signified a departure from traditional writing styles such as romantic socialism, realism, and regionalism. Brazil's "new" literature was cosmopolitan, stylish, poetic, and "arty." Authors like Mario Raul de Morais Andrade explored the urban life of São Paulo, while Jorge Amado transformed folklore into high art. Clarice Lispector is often associated with modernist writers due to her focus on consciousness and the poetic nature of her prose.

The postmodern movement took longer to reach Brazil. Postmodernist literature deliberately highlights the act of writing itself, rejecting conventional plot and character forms and embracing the notion of the "death of the author" in a world of literary "exhaustion," where every story seems to have been told. Postmodernists aim to capture the elusive or subjective nature of meaning by "playing with" narrative structures, language, and genre. Consequently, the emphasis shifts to the formal aspects of writing and the writing process itself, rather than the content. Postmodern fiction frequently elevates marginalized voices.

Brazilian author João Guimarães Rosa was a formalist and postmodern writer who introduced "magic realism" to Brazilian literature, expanding the unique language of eastern Brazil to create his own new language, akin to the Caribbean's la negritude. Rosa significantly influenced Brazilian literature by showing that it need not have a socially reformative purpose. According to Antonio Candido, Clarice Lispector also had a profound impact on Brazilian literature because of her "impressive attempt to elevate Brazilian Portuguese to a plane hitherto unexplored, by adapting it to mental processes imbued with mystery—whereby fiction was no longer a mere exercise or sentimental adventure but rather a genuine instrument of the spirit, capable of helping us penetrate the most recondite labyrinths of the mind." Lispector bridged the modernist and postmodern movements. While she was a modernist writer, she also engaged with postmodernist concerns about expressing states of consciousness and extensively experimented with narrative techniques.

Literary Style

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Point of View

According to C. Hugh Holman and William Harmon in A Handbook to Literature, 6th edition (1992), "point of view" refers to the position from which an author narrates a story. This perspective includes various elements such as the narrator's physical standpoint (what they visually perceive, akin to a camera's view), their emotional outlook (mood), and their social or relational perspective (attitude toward what is observed). Consequently, a narrator will note physical details of items seen, like a hat, and the angle from which it is viewed, such as on another character's head. The narrator would convey this item with a specific mood, which could be joyful, shown through elaborate or playful description, or gloomy, conveyed through a monotone and minimal description. Additionally, the narrator's response to the item, whether it appears threatening or friendly, will be apparent. One can also discuss the focalization of a work, which involves the triad of the narrating agent (who narrates), the narrator's perspective (the vantage point), and the focalized (what is observed). The narrating agent might possess omniscience, having the ability to understand all characters' thoughts, or be a limited omniscient narrator who can only access one character's mind. In "Family Ties," Lispector uses a limited omniscient point of view, but the perspective changes after two-thirds of the story. It starts with Catherine's restricted perspective, detailing what she sees and thinks. After Catherine takes their son for a walk, the story switches to Tony's perspective, with his thoughts and observations narrated. The narration is "restricted" because only one viewpoint is explored at a time. If the narration included thoughts from Catherine, Tony, and Severina simultaneously, the point of view would be fully omniscient.

Motif

A motif is a recurring image, phrase, or element that enriches the meaning of a narrative. It often gains symbolic significance as part of the story's theme. For instance, the Bible features motifs such as light and dark imagery, along with themes like the prodigal son and the messiah, which are crucial to the stories' meanings. A motif might be a seemingly minor detail that is repeated with significance, or it might be a frequently occurring event that helps unify the story. In ‘‘Family Ties,’’ the motif of the window repeatedly appears as an image that both divides and connects family members. Another motif is departure, represented by the taxi, train, and elevator. There is also a subtle motif of the "gaze," which can be gentle, as when Catherine notices her mother's trembling hand adjusting her hat, or hostile, as when Catherine observes her mother's awkward apology to her husband, or fearful, as when Tony watches his wife take their son for a walk. In each instance, the gaze is powerless yet judgmental. The central motif is the mother-child relationship, first seen in the tension between Catherine and her mother, and then mirrored in the strained bond between Catherine and her young son. The motif of insects or a swarm appears just once in ‘‘Family Ties'' as a brief reference to moths around the dinner table, but it is a common theme in the other stories of the collection Family Ties and throughout Lispector's works.

Literary Heritage

Clarice Lispector is regarded as one of the foremost Latin American authors of the twentieth century. Her literary contributions can be appreciated within the historical context of Latin-American literature, particularly Brazilian literature. Before European conquest and colonization, especially by Spain, the indigenous cultures of Latin America had a rich tradition of both written and oral literature. After colonization, Latin-American literature evolved from the narratives of both the conquered native peoples and the European colonizers, eventually reflecting the struggles against colonial rule, forming a ‘‘literature of oppression.’’ Brazil introduced the first Latin-American novel in 1844, titled A moreninha (‘‘The Little Brunette’’) by Joaquim Manuel de Macedo. In the latter half of the twentieth century, Latin-American fiction began to focus on experimental narrative and linguistic style to convey social issues. Lispector was a pioneer in the emergence of Latin-American fiction by women authors, a movement that gained momentum in the 1960s.

Compare and Contrast

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1960: In Brazil, President Juscelino Kubitschek promoted nationalism by initiating government-funded public works projects. However, this led to a significant increase in national debt and inflation, causing the cost of living to triple during his term. Kubitschek faced accusations of corruption and graft, issues common in Brazil and other Latin American countries. His successor, Jânio Quadros, was weak, nearly pushing the nation into civil war.

Today: After enduring military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985, characterized by corruption and police brutality, Brazil saw a growing demand for democratization. This led to local elections in 1982 and a presidential election in 1989. However, the next two presidents faced impeachment over alleged corruption. In 1994, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, an academic, was elected president on a platform advocating democratic reform. His policies have led to advancements in human rights, economic restructuring, and educational improvements.

1960: During President Kubitschek's term, Brazil experienced high inflation, causing the cost of living to triple. Over two-thirds of the population lived in rural areas, relying on agriculture. A small, affluent group dominated the government and cultural sectors.

Today: Under President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, significant economic reforms were implemented, including a drastic devaluation of the real in 1999. These measures have controlled inflation, a feat not achieved by other South American countries, which have faced deeper recessions. Brazil's economy is now stronger than all its South American neighbors combined. Currently, 75 percent of the population lives in urban areas, yet a small elite still governs, leaving many to struggle with high illiteracy and poverty rates.

1960: Modernist literature aimed to inspire social change or reflected a sense of pessimism and fatigue, featuring flat characters navigating a complex and absurd world.

Today: Postmodern literature focuses on the uniqueness of individuals through themes of relative values. At the same time, there is a growing emphasis on themes that highlight shared values and experiences.

Bibliography and Further Reading

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Sources

Ayer, A. J., and Jane Grady, eds., A Dictionary of Philosophical Quotations, Basil Blackwell Reference, 1992, pp. 401, 404.

Borelli, Olga, Clarice Lispector: um esboço para um possível retrato, Nova Frontiera, 1981, p. 66.

Cook, Bruce, ‘‘Women in the Web,’’ in Review, Vol. 73, Spring, 1973, p. 65.

Fitz, Earl E., New York Times Book Review, Winter, 1982, pp. 195-208.

Herman, Rita, review of Laços de Família, in Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, June 1967, pp. 69-70.

Holman, C. Hugh, and William Harmon, A Handbook to Literature, 6th edition, Macmillan Publishing Co., 1992, p. 366.

Lispector, Clarice, Selected Crônicas, New Directions, 1992, p. 55.

MacAdam, Alfred J., review of Laços de Família, in New York Times Book Review, September 3, 1967, pp. 22-23.

Moises, Massaud, ‘‘Clarice Lispector: Fiction and Cosmic Vision,’’ translated by Sara M. McCabe, in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1971, pp. 268-81.

Pontiero, Giovanni, "The Drama of Existence in Laços de Família,’’ in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1971, pp. 256-67.

Popkin, Richard H., ed., The Columbia History of Western Philosophy, Columbia University Press, 1999, p. 730.

Swanson, Philip, The New Novel in Latin America: Politics and Popular Culture after the Boom, Manchester University Press, 1995, p. 135.

Williams, Raymond L., The Postmodern Novel in Latin America: Politics, Culture, and the Crisis of Truth, St. Martin's Press, 1995, p. 118.

Further Reading

Cixous, Helene, Reading with Clarice Lispector, University of Minnesota Press, 1990.
This book is a transcription and translation of French feminist Cixous' lectures on Lispector's fiction.

Fitz, Earl E., Clarice Lispector, 1985.
This is the first comprehensive biography of Lispector available in English.

----, ‘‘Clarice Lispector,’’ in Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 113: Modern Latin-American Fiction Writers, edited by William Luis, Gale, 1992, pp. 197-204.
A concise biographical account of Lispector.

Lindstrom, Naomi, Women's Voices in Latin American Literature, Three Continents Press, 1981.
Lindstrom explores the narrative strategies in Family Ties to illustrate the limitations of traditional female roles and the responses of women to these roles.

Lowe, Elizabeth, ‘‘The Passion According to C. L.,’’ in Review, Vol. 24, June 1979, pp. 34-37.
An interview concentrating on Lispector's writing practices and her engagement with social issues.

Lucas, Fabio, ‘‘Contemporary Brazilian Fiction: Guimaraes Rosa and Clarice Lispector,'' in Contemporary Latin American Literature, edited by Harvey L. Johnson and Philip B. Taylor, University of Texas Press, 1973.
An evaluation of Lispector's role in modern Brazilian literature.

Nunes, Maria Luisa, ‘‘Narrative Modes in Clarice Lispector's Laços de Família: The Rendering of Consciousness,’’ in Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 14, No. 2, 1977, pp. 174-84.
Nunes examines various and sometimes conflicting terms for internal narration in Lispector's Family Ties.

Pontiero, Giovanni, "The Drama of Existence in Laços de Família,’’ in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1971, pp. 256-67.
Pontiero, who translated many of Lispector's works into English, delves into the philosophical themes present in the stories of Family Ties.

Severino, Alexandrino E., ‘‘Major Trends in the Development of the Brazilian Short Story,’’ in Studies in Short Fiction, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1971, pp. 199-208.
This work places Lispector within the broader context of modernist Brazilian writers.

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