THE REPRESENTATION OF THE OLD WOMAN IN SHORT STORIES BY CLARICE LISPECTOR

Abstract

The objective of this paper is to present how old women are represented in some short stories by Clarice Lispector: “Ruído de passos”, “Feliz aniversário” and “Mas vai chover”. Little explored in Brazilian literature, the aging is a social taboo, especially female aging, because women are seen as eroticized bodies and potential consumers of beauty products and something like that in the capitalist system. In the 1950s, Clarice Lispector worked with this theme, in short stories and chronicles, and the writer's point of view indicates to the commonplace of loneliness in the social relationships and also in interpersonal relationships, since the old women occupies a place of social worthlessness, including their sexuality. As part of Clarice Lispector’s literature is based on a critique of patriarchal family relationships, Os laços de família is an example, the writer demonstrates that female aging is a topos to reiterate the failure of this model. Therefore, the short stories show that old age is a social and cultural construction, and not just a biological factor, as Simone de Beauvoir pointed out in her classic book A velhice.