Laura Cabezas
From her first texts, Clarice Lispector showed great interest in delving into the sacred side of the world. In Perto do coração salvagem (1943), her first novel, there are several elements that refer to the religious field: mystical abductions of the protagonist, the appeal to sin and evil, to holiness and miracles, mentions of God, and the immeasurability and tranquility of the eternal. These themes will be repeated in other novels and stories, and for this reason, several critical works have addressed the mystical or spiritual question in Lispector, especially after Benedito Nunes’s classic reading of A Paixão Segundo G.H. This article aims to put into dialogue the religious imaginary of Lispector’s first novel with the Catholic intellectual field, in which many of her friends were involved, and which had experienced a revitalization at a transnational level during the previous decade. I am interested in highlighting themes that connect her literature with the reflections of some writers with ties to Catholicism, such as Tasso da Silveira and Lúcio Cardoso.