Images of water and character transformation in A paixão segundo G.H. and Uma aprendizagem ou o livro dos prazeres

Abstract

This article aims to reflect upon the trajectories of G.H. and Lóri, protagonists of Clarice Lispector’s novels A paixão segundo G.H. and Uma aprendizagem ou o livro dos prazeres. It is of interest to examine how these characters go through transformations with focus on references to water, which appear recurrently in both novels. Following this approach, protagonists’ changes were analyzed in dialogue with the concepts of anachronism and liminality, which figure, respectively, in Georges Didi-Huberman (2015) and Jeanne Marie Gagnebin (2014). By comparing Lispector’s books, we could observe that both G.H. and Lóri show signs of indeterminacy in their perceptions of the world, whereas their trajectories differ with regard to how they relate to the spheres of culture and nature.