Silent photograph

Violence in A hora da estrela, by Clarice Lispector

Abstract

This paper aims to show how physical, social, and cultural violence affects Macabéa in Clarice Lispector’s A hora da estrela, resulting in the character’s silence. This is a literary analysis grounded in literary theory and criticism, as well as in studies on the relationship between violence, culture, and language by:  Marilena Chauí, Jaime Ginzburg, Slavoj Žižek, Pierre Bourdieu, Émile Benveniste, and Mikhail Bakhtin. It is evident that internal and external violence accompany the trajectory of Lispector’s character: external violence is manifested in the precarious nature of the country’s socioeconomic structure, while internal violence is represented by the difficulties in social, interpersonal, emotional, and communicative relationships. This results in the silenced voice of the alienated speaker in a technically modern and consumerist society.

Submission: Jul 24, 2026 ⊶ Accepted: Sep 28, 2026