Title: Public Disaster and Existential Consciousness: On the Depiction of Hunger in A Hora da Estrela
Abstract: Clarice Lispector has long been regarded as a writer preoccupied with introspective themes, yet her final work, A Hora da Estrela, marks a notable shift in her writing, emerging as her sole text which engages directly with social critique. This paper argues that such a literary turn does not merely stem from a late-life inclination toward memoir writing, nor does it represent an abrupt transformation. Rather, it synthesizes her lifelong conviction—rooted in her youth—of using literature to pursue justice with the thematic representation of “hunger” as both contemporary anxiety and national issue. In truth, the social critique in A Hora da Estrela does not dissolve the existentialist philosophical core that permeates Clarice’s oeuvre. Instead, it elevates a societal problem into a profound philosophical inquiry into the essence of human existence.
Keywords: A Hora da Estrela, hunger, consumerism, existentialism, nothingness
Author: Xuefei Min, Associate Professor, School of Foreign Languages, Peking University, Beijing, China.
DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2025.02.001