Intimate life inside the walls of glass

an analysis of journals by Maura Lopes Cançado, Alejandra Pizarnik and Sylvia Plath

Abstract

Abstract: Considering some reflections by Leonor Arfuch, Philippe Lejeune and Maurice Blanchot on the “intimate writing” related to the production of diaries, this article aims at building a comparative analysis between the journals by three writers: Maura Lopes Cançado, Alejandra Pizarnik and Sylvia Plath. By placing these productions side by side, we intend to show some common characteristics, related to form – as the recurring lyrical language – as well as to content: accounts of anguish, suicide attempts, hospitalization in psychiatric asylums and the fear of madness (subject we investigate with Lisa Appignanesi’s support). We hope to contribute to a systematization of studies about journals of writers who have dedicated themselves to literature, and, mainly, due to the specific cases we are focusing here, to point possible specificities of the intimate writing that deals directly with experiences of psychiatric treatment and suicide.

Keywords: journals; intimate writing; madness.