From "ti" to "it"

a Crossing with Clarice Lispector

Abstract

This article points to the frequent presence of the particles “ti” and “it” in the work Água viva, by Clarice Lispector, and proposes a reading based on the tension between personality and impersonality in writing. Initially, we resort to the category of deictics, derived from linguistics, and the elaborations of psychoanalysis about subjectivity. Next, we outline the configuration of the theme of freedom in the work of Lispector, seeking to highlight there a certain crossing that does not seem to be complete. This is also the case with the transition from “ti” to “it”, since it does not constitute a definitive movement, nor is it a one-way movement. Something about the personality of the writer coexists with the impersonality of the literary work in different combinations. In the same text that sometimes one reads “ti”, sometimes one reads “it”, what enables to glimpse there a crossing in permanent restart.