cannibalistic perspectives

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Cannibalistic Perspectives: Paradoxical Duplication and the "Mise en Abyme" in ClariceLispector's "A menor mulher do mundo"Author(s): Michael ColvinReviewed work(s):Source: Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 41, No. 2 (2005), pp. 84-95Published by: University of Wisconsin Press

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CannibalisticPerspectives:Paradoxical Duplication and the mise

en abyme in Clarice Lispector's Amenor mulher do mundo 1

Michael Colvin

Neste estudo examinam-se as motivao6es tematicas do canibalismo e da

regenera?ao omo reflexoes da estrutura narrativa paradoxal em Amenormulher do mundo. A perspectiva ambulatoria -que muda de ponto de vistasete vezes-complica a tecnica de encaixamento ao por em constante questaoa ideia de centro. As perspectivas ubsequentes deslocam o centro e, aofim doconto, substituem-no. A perspectiva em perpetua mudanca, uma perspectiva

que da a luz uma serie de pontos de vista criticos que simultaneamente aenquadram, chama-nos a atenaio a natureza regenerativa embora antrop6fagada narrativa em A menor mulher do mundo.

If the center of a narration is defined by the narrator's point of view, conse-

quently, the embedded point of view establishes degrees of duplication. InClarice Lispector's A menor mulher do mundo, the narrator's ambulatoryperspective, shifting seven times, complicates the embedding technique byconstantly questioning the notion of center.2 The narrator's subsequentpoints of view displace the center and, by the end of the story, replace it. Theunfixed perspective, a perspective simultaneously spawning and framing a se-ries of critical points of view, calls attention to the self-consciously regenera-tive although cannibalistic nature of Lispector's narrative structure. I shalldemonstrate that the narrative structure of paradoxical duplication is a re-

flection of the leitmotifs of cannibalism and regeneration in A menor mu-lher do mundo. Lispector presents the latent desire of the progeny to devour

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its progenitor just as the smallest frame of the narration devours the apparentlargest frame, in which it is embedded.

The key to the narrative structure of paradoxical duplication in Ame-

nor mulher do mundo can be found in the statement that the secret goal ofour existence is to escape being devoured (94). By assuming the aporeticform of the Ouroboros, the narration avoids being devoured by embeddingthose frames that embed it.3 The final Chinese box contained within otherboxes encloses the boxes that once contained it. The theme of cannibalism in

Lispector's short story serves the function of drawing our attention to the

paradoxical structure of the narration, by showing that Pequena Flor, alwaysthe prey of cannibals, is capable of preying on the cannibals. Marcel Pretrediscovers

PequenaFlor for

a world that wishes to devour her, yetshe wants to

devour Pretre. There are seven allusions to cannibalistic urges felt by charac-ters in the short story. The first six focus on Pequena Flor as object of thecannibalistic appetite. These urges represent the characters' desire to contain

Pequena Flor: to contain the smallest woman in the world. I shall demon-strate that the coincidence between the title, A menor mulher do mundo,and its quasi-anonymous reference to the Pygmy woman constitutes theshort story's self-referentiality. By calling Pequena Flor the smallest woman/mature human being, variations on the story's title, the narrator signals her

as a repetition or reflection of the literature, and thus problematizes the ty-pology of the mise en abyme. Consequently, the other characters' atent de-sire to devour Pequena Flor translates as the desire to contain within theirnarration A menor mulher do mundo, the narrative entity that enclosesthem. Pequena Flor expresses the seventh cannibalistic urge; the object ofher hunger is Marcel Pretre. Her desire towards Pretre reestablishes the nar-rative order of the story by positioning the smallest woman in the world asthe outer frame. The seeming autonomy of the final vignette, a vignette that

attempts independencefrom its

positionas an interior frame, however com-

plicates the narrative order by turning the page and thus ending the story.Below, I shall study each of the expressions of cannibalistic urge to under-stand its reflection of the paradoxical narrative structure of A menor mu-lher do mundo.

First it is necessary to outline the structure of the embedding that consti-tutes paradoxical or aporetic duplication in A menor mulher do mundo.Neide Luzia de Rezende studies the problem of the other while confronting aseries of paradoxes within the context of narrative embedding.4 She believes

that Lispector's protagonist, the French explorer Marcel Pretre's encounterwith the Pygmy woman, Pequena Flor, is the matrix of the narration or the

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Luso-Brazilian Review 41:2

the work that s/he is narrating. Marcel Pretre, a man of the world ( homemdo mundo ), stumbles upon the smallest pygmies in the world ( os menores

pigmeus do mundo ) and, within the tribe, he finds the smallest woman inthe world ( a menor mulher do mundo ) who carries in her womb thesmallest black baby in the world ( o bebe preto menor do mundo ) (87, 87,88, 93). The repetition of the title, or of its equivalents, makes the reader con-scious of his/ her own role: a role reflected in that of the women/ families ineach vignette.

The photograph of Pequena Flor links the implied reader of Lispector'sstory to the interdiegetic readers of Pretre's article and therefore is key to our

understanding of A menor mulher do mundo 's paradoxical narrative

structure:A fotografia e Pequena Flor foi publicada no suplemento olorido dos jor-nais de domingo, onde coube em tamanho natural nrolada num pano, coma barriga m estado adiantado. O nariz chato, a cara preta, os olhos fundos, ospes espalmados. 89)

Although the narrator nforms us that Pequena Flor appears in the color sup-plement she is not allotted any color in the description of her photograph. Infact, in no part of the narration is she attributed color. The monochromatic

yet color photograph therefore is a faithful reproduction of the Pygmy sinceit mimics the narrator's colorless description of Pequena Flor. Furthermore,that Pequena Flor's photograph appears in actual size affirms the affinitybetween the reader of A menor mulher do mundo and the readers of thearticle in the Sunday paper. Because they hold before themselves a two-dimensional, yet proportional and chromatically accurate reproduction of

Pequena Flor, and because their criticisms do not reveal concern for the ac-

companying text, the interdiegetic readers are also readers, in a sense, of Amenor mulher do mundo.

The relationship between the description of the photograph, the smallestwoman in the world (the character in Clarice Lispector's story), the title of

Lispector's short story and the reactions of the characters in the urban vi-

gnettes confirms the paradoxical nature of the duplications in the narrative.In their acts of criticizing the work that gave them birth, the protagonists ofthe vignettes leap out of their roles as characters, products of the author.

They transcend their positions as embedded characters whose existence ismade convenient by the role they play in one of the apparent inner frames of

the embedded narratives. And some characters who share this position takea more active role in overcoming the subordinate role of character by sym-bolically trying to become the outer frame not only of the narration, but alsoof Lispector's story, by containing the smallest woman in the world.

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We shall start with Marcel Pretre, as his perspective is the first presentedby our narrator, and thus appears to be the outer frame. Pretre's objective is

clearly traced in the first pages of the story: to arrive at a final conclusion

(88). He believes that he has found the smallest human being in the worldamongst the smallest people in the world. His search for limits-definition,center, essence-establishes his position as subject, subordinating the other

perspectives presented by the narrator. As the exterior frame, Pretre defineswhat will occupy the interior frames: the Likouala Pygmies and, within thatframe, Pequena Flor. This framing, however, is subverted by the discovery of

Pequena Flor's fetus, which displaces Pretre's center. Pequena Flor's preg-nancy problematizes Pretre's notion of limits and the accuracy of his claimto have found the smallest human

specimen.The smallest human

specimenis not yet visible. The suggested infinity of an unknown smaller human spec-imen throws Pretre's discovery into an abyss. There may not be an essenceand therefore Pequena Flor does not occupy the furthest interior frame,rather a frame that, like Pretre's own, subordinates other frames. Pretre's dis-

covery of such vertiginous infinity marks the first cannibalistic urge in theshort story. Lispector writes: Nos tepidos humores silvestres, que arredon-dam cedo as frutas e lhes dao uma quase intoleravel docura ao paladar, elaestava gravida 87). The pending infinity of the fetus, and what it may con-

tain, and what that may contain, is contrary to Pretre's empirical approach toscience. Pretre must arrive at the essence of what is tangible. His comparisonof Pequena Flor's distended belly to the unbearable sweetness of ripe fruitmanifests his urge to contain the essence (87). The urge forges Pretre's statusas the outer frame and his capacity to devour Pequena Flor within thatframe. Yet every time he refers to the Pygmy woman as the smallest womanin the world, her status as a reiteration of Lispector's title subordinates Pre-tre's perspective and contains him within its frame.

The first cannibalistic urge is echoed in the second, which also appears ata key moment, when Pretre marvels at the rarity of his discovery. He searchesfor an equivalent to express the unique character of his find but rejects all:

seu cora,ao bateu porque esmeralda nenhuma e tao rara. Nem os ensina-mentos dos sabios da India sao tao raros. Nem o homem mais rico do mundo

ja pos olhos sobre tanta estranha graca 89). Pretre abandons his lists of in-ferior comparisons at the very moment when he baptizes the Pygmy as Pe-

quena Flor. His last comparison settles on the gustatory sense: Ali estavauma mulher que a gulodice do mais fino sonho jamais pudera imaginar

(89). The coincidence between the Portuguese word for dream and an intol-erably sweet pastry, resembling a custard-filled doughnut, is not fortuitous(87, 89). The metaphor's intention to awaken the gustatory sense, by exploit-ing the double meaning of the word sonho is confirmed by the substantive

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gulodice, appropriate when describing a pastry (89). It is significantthat the cannibalistic urge overcome Pretre just as he is about to renamethe Pygmy woman. By calling her Pequena Flor Pretre-at least during the

part of the narration corresponding to his perspective-manages to avertthe conscious iteration of the short story's title. Pretre's urge to contain thesmallest woman in the world is made clear first in his latent desire to devour

Pequena Flor and, consequently, in a manifest decision to redefine the Pygmywoman's potential autonomy as an exterior frame of the narration. As Pe-

quena Flor, she is no longer equivalent to Lispector's title and therefore issubordinate to Pretre's apparent outer narrative frame.

However, once Pretre's article and photograph documenting his discov-

ery appearin

print,the narrative

perspectiveshifts. And

althoughthe

Pygmywoman continues to be called Pequena Flor, the context of the photographconstantly remands her to the title A menor mulher do mundo. We havenoted that during this shift in perspectives-to the perspectives of the appar-ently embedded narratives-the readers of the newspaper article take little orno notice of the accompanying text. Therefore they, just as we, are reading Amenor mulher do mundo as they contemplate Pequena Flor's photograph.

The second woman who looks at the photograph of Pequena Flor is over-come by a longing ( dir-se-ia tomada pela saudade ) for the figure of Pe-

quena Flor; she imagines her perhaps as a phallic idol or a sexual toy (go). Insuch a context, Pequena Flor, if left in her presence, will be devoured by the

lonely woman. Her desire to devour, vaginally, the smallest woman in theworld is a desire to devour the image of the photograph that she is reading,thus to devour the same text that we are reading. This is the will to elude, inher devouring, her position as one of the interior frames of the narration tobecome not only the exterior frame, but also the frame that holds within it

Lispector's short story.This second vignette complicates the notion of a mere reproduction of

the context of Pretre's discovery in the embedded narrative. Furthermore itproblematizes the orderly sense of infinity proposed by the allusion to theChinese box. Pretre's perspective produces and therefore contains the photo-graph. The photograph subordinates the urban vignettes rendering themmere reactions to the image of the smallest woman in the world. By willingto contain Pequena Flor, the lonely woman's sexually cannibalistic desire po-tentially contains Lispector's short story-the true exterior frame-which inturn subordinates Pretre's perspective, the implied exterior narrative frame.

The most problematic vignette with regard to our categories of the narra-tive structure of A menor mulher do mundo is that of the mother's rollingher hair while her son imagines Pequena Flor as a toy, a prank to be played onhis brother. This episode reflects upon itself as it reflects the structure of the

story by containing a further embedded story, provoked by Pretre's article yet


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autonomous of it. The child's mischief reminds the mother of a story thatthe family's cook told her of her days at an orphanage. Lispector writes:

Nao tendo boneca com que brincar, a maternidade a pulsando errivel nocoraqao as 6rfas, as meninas sabidas haviam escondido da freira a morte deuma das garotas. Guardaram cadaver um armario ate a freira air, e brin-caram om a menina morta, deram-lhe anhos e comidinhas, useram-na ecastigo omente para depois poder beija-la, onsolando-a. 91)

The embedded story reminds the mother of her own reproduction as she

contemplates her child in evolution: Assim olhou ela, com muita atencaoe um orgulho inconfortavel, aquele menino que ja estava sem os dois dentesda

frente, a evolucao, a evolucao se fazendo, dente caindo para nascero

quemelhor morde 91-2). The mother focuses on her child's missing front teethand his capacity for ferocity. His evolution yields to violent tendencies andlatent cannibalistic urges associated with biting. The boy's mischievous be-havior has a dark side that is exposed while he schemes to make Pequena Florhis toy. The mother observes her child with horror, aware that she has createdthe potential cannibal. Upon noticing the latent savagery of her son, the ap-parent animal link between her child and Pequena Flor, the mother resolvesto disguise her son's nature by dressing him up in a new suit. By identifyingher son with Pequena Flor, the mother must also identify herself with thatcolorless/ dark figure escura como um macaco 92). She looks at her reflec-tion in the mirror, taking note of her defined lines in contrast to the natural

fluidity of Pequena Flor's face, thus establishing a distance between herselfand the Pygmy woman.

De Rezende comments on the importance of the mirror in this episode asit is the space in which the 'eu' se duplica (57). The mirror calls our atten-tion to the apparent infinite duplication of the scene and at the same time re-iterates the embedded

relationshipbetween

Lispector'sshort

story,Pretre's

discovery, the newspaper article and photograph, the reactions of the urbanfamilies and the remembered story of the children in the orphanage. How-ever, by looking in the mirror and rejecting the image of the smallest womanin the world, the mother symbolically transcends her position as a mere inter-ior frame of the narration. Her rejection, by establishing an insurmountabledistance of millenniums between herself and the smallest woman in theworld, signals the mother as an interdiegetic critic of Amenor mulher domundo (92).

The mother's critical gesture, both towards the figure of the Pygmywoman, and, by its association with the short story's title, towards Lispec-tor's writing, of which she is a part, is echoed in the subsequent embeddednarratives. The criticism of the smallest woman in the world, not just as the

figure who appears in the newspaper, but also as an emblem of the printed

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word that contains that criticism is most evident in the final embedded

episodes. The motif of the newspaper calls our attention to the suggestedduplication of Lispector's short story within Pretre's article: the photo of

a menor mulher do mundo as an injection [of the story's title] into thediegesis (Dallenbach 112).

When the father of the family, irritated by the other family members' awetowards Pretre's photograph, rustles behind the newspaper he reminds us ofthe written text. He draws our attention to his act of reading the smallestwoman in the world-Pretre's photograph-as a reflection of our act of

reading the story by Lispector. The father turns the page of the newspaper de-

finitively: vira a pagina do jornal definitivamente, a movement that presagesthe old woman's act of

closingthe

newspaperwith determination:

[fecha]o

jornal com decisao (92, 96). In both cases, the characters' utterances-afterthe newspaper article is out of sight-show off their autonomy from Pretre'sarticle and Lispector's iterary production. The critical gesture of turning thepage that contains the smallest woman in the world equals a closing of thebook that contains Amenor mulher do mundo. Thus the father and the oldwoman of the last two embedded urban vignettes attempt autonomy fromtheir positions as embedded products of the apparent greater scheme of in-finite duplication. The nature of this duplication is paradoxical. By achieving

such independence and turning the page on the smallest woman in the world,the characters manage to contain, on a symbolic level, the narration that has

produced them.The end of the penultimate embedded segment is announced with an

ironic transition from the ambulatory perspectives of the urban families tothat of the narrator. The narrator seems to laugh at the notion of othernesspresented by Pretre and confirmed by the families' fascination with and re-pulsion by the photograph of Pequena Flor: E a pr6pria coisa rara (93).Thus the paradoxical duplication is further problematized. If the embeddedcharacters' revulsion towards the smallest woman in the world constitutesan interdiegetic criticism of Lispector's homonymous short story, then the

implied narrator's ronic dismissal of those characters' reactions manifests acriticism of that criticism. The narrator uses Pretre's ethnocentric expression

a coisa rara o introduce the episode of Pequena Flor's perspective. Pe-

quena Flor's point of view proves to be rather common: anything but rarewhen compared to Pretre's and his readers' perspectives.

The smallest woman in the world also expresses cannibalistic urges and

the desire to possess: era muito bom ter uma arvore para morar, sua, suamesmo [...] pois e bom possuir, e bom possuir, e bom possuir (95). Bytransferring the point of view to Pequena Flor, this episode further compli-cates the structure of infinite duplication. The object, Pequena Flor, becomesthe subject. By exposing her capacity for perspective, the narrator exposes

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the irony in Pretre's apparently scientific claims about Pequena Flor's beingthe essence; her existence is no more essential than his. When Pequena Floradmires Pretre's skin color, she compares his blushing to the color of an un-

ripe lemon and assumes that he must taste acidic: tornou-se uma cor linda,a sua, de um rosa-esverdeado, como a de um limao de madrugada. Ele deviaser azedo (95). Pequena Flor's comparison of the explorer to a fruit demon-strates her capacity to draw similar conclusions as the European.

The episode thus mirrors that in which Pretre, upon discovering that the

Pygmy woman is pregnant compares the roundness of her belly to that of a

ripe fruit. We have noted the latent cannibalistic urges of the explorer in thisremark therefore we must recognize the same desire in Pequena Flor. The

pigmywoman is not so different from the

explorer,or from the readers. She

is motivated by her desire to possess and to devour. On a structural level Pe-

quena Flor's cannibalistic urges directed towards Pretre manifest an attemptto revolt against the apparent structure of infinite duplication. The structureof the Chinese box, as we have noted, subordinates Pequena Flor as a discov-

ery, and, through his article, as a literary creation of Pretre. By willing to de-vour Pretre, Pequena Flor attempts to subordinate him. Thus she is no longerlimited to occupying the narrative frame designed by Pretre, rather she willbecome the frame in which the explorer's narration exists.

Nevertheless, Pequena Flor's repeated association with the title of Lispec-tor's short story automatically remands her perspective to the position of theouter frame. In this sense, her devouring Pretre will result in the restitution ofthe order of infinite duplication: the smallest woman in the world-PequenaFlor as the utterance of the title-is the outer frame of the short story.

Were Pequena Flor's perspective the last presented by the narrator, we

might conclude, as does de Rezende, that the short story mimics the infinitestructure of the Chinese box. However, the placement of Pequena Flor's per-spective between the episodes of the urban families and the final vignette ofthe old woman confounds such a structure by presenting the transgression ofan embedded character. The apparent closing of Lispector's work by a char-acter within one of the most internal frames of the embedded narrative al-lows us to conclude that the narrative structure is not infinite, but rather,paradoxical. Although the old woman is merely a character within an em-bedded narrative contained by Lispector's short story, she ends the sameshort story as she closes the newspaper.

In conclusion, I argue that the narrative structure of the mise en abyme in

Clarice Lispector's Amenor mulher do mundo appears to adhere to LucienDallenbach's category of infinite duplication. Lispector's narrator exploitsmotifs to lead the reader to conclude that Pretre, as author of the newspaperarticle, frames the embedded vignettes, and that the episode of the mother infront of her mirror further frames a remembered episode. The allusion to

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the Chinese box, its reflection of Pequena Flor's relation to her fetus and thepresence of the mirror in the aforementioned vignette all appear to serve thenarrative structure of the story. However, the organization of the narrative

perspective-moving from Pretre to the urban vignettes to Pequena Flor andback to one urban vignette-disrupts the neatly contained embedding tech-

nique suggested by infinite duplication. Rather, its order contradicts such astructure. The relationship between the embedding perspectives to the em-bedded episodes is paradoxical. The embedded narratives embed the per-spectives that contained them. Lispector's eitmotifs of cannibalism and re-

generation serve this aporetic mise en abyme.Furthermore, the inevitable association between Pequena Flor and the

title ofLispector's

shortstory constantly

draws our attention to the narra-tive's self-referentiality: Amenor mulher do mundo ( The Smallest Womanin the World ), the story, contains Pretre's newspaper article about the small-est woman in the world. The article provokes reactions to and criticisms ofthe smallest woman in the world. And the final reaction, of the old woman,closes the book on the smallest woman in the world. The ultimate critical

gesture achieves, for the old woman, symbolic autonomy from the structureof infinite duplication and, consequently, devours the short story that ap-peared to be its most exterior frame.

Notes

1. Lispector, Clarice. La?os de familia. Rio de Janeiro: Francisco Alves Editora,1993.

2. Judith Rosenberg emarks n the change n perspective: The narration hifts

to various urban amilies who, upon seeing the photograph f Little Flower, egin,like Pretre, o react, observe, nd measure her 71).3. Dallenbach efers o the Ouroboros -the snake biting its own tale- as an

emblem of paradoxical duplication and self-embedding (112).4. In her article, Aproblematizacao a alteridade em 'A menor mulher do

mundo,' e Rezende efers o Tzvetan Todorov's heories of narrative tructure, ndLucien Dallenbach's nd Jean Ricardou's tudies on mise en abyme o understand heembedding echnique peculiar o Lispector's tory.

5. Although he does not focus on the mise en abyme echnique, De Rezende de-scribes what Dallenbach lassifies s

typeone mise en abyme r

simpleduplication,

by which the duplicated equence is connected by similarity o the work that en-closes t (35). She thus views the urban vignettes as specular microcosmic eproduc-tions of the reflected ontext of Marcel Pretre's ncounter with Pequena Flor. DeRezende comments: o contexto de Pequena Flor seria, usando a terminologia deTodorov, narrativa ncaixante, matriz dessas caixas, todas as cenas que se passam

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