Near to the Wild Heart (Penguin Modern Classics)

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This is the challenge, which Moser points to in his introduction, that forms the crux of the book: to capture “the symbol of the thing in the thing itself;” to successfully unite words with meaning and emotions. This linguistic struggle parallels Joana’s own psychological struggle to make herself understood in relation to others, while simultaneously preserving her individuality. Should she exist alone, full-fledged – like a solitary word – symbolizing only that which she contains in her own form? Or should she attach herself to other layers of meaning – people, beliefs, or God – which will necessarily plaster themselves over her own essential meaning? Having been introduced to Clarice with her gem of a debut, I take delight in my sudden acquiescence in knowing for what awaits me in the rest of her novels. Cowling’s work, the use of materials and the way she works with them are influenced by her lived experience in the post-industrial landscape of Bradford. Drawn to materials that are discarded, overlooked, and abandoned she attempts through her practice to give them life. She is also interested in the textures, rhythms, and physical make-up of the streets on which she grew up. Named after Clarice Lispector’s introspective novel ‘Near to the Wild Heart’, the exhibition evokes a fractured interior landscape and a restless mind. Both Lispector and Cowling seek to find moments of freedom and joy in the commonplace and in interactions with the world around them. She navigates her mixed feelings of isolation, displacement, and tenderness towards the urban wilderness of this often-melancholic Northern landscape.

All of me swims, floats, crosses what exists with my nerves. I am nothing but a desire, anger, vagueness, as impalpable as energy. She wanted even more: to be reborn always, to sever everything that she had learned, that she had seen, and inaugurate herself in new terrain where every tiny act had a meaning, where the air was breathed as if for the first time.” Sinfonia per voce sola, magnetica e seducente, con una gamma di toni e variazioni da lasciare stupefatti. And so Joana is. A little live egg according to her father, a viper for her aunt, betrayed by her husband Otavio. Child, girl, woman. And whom is she for herself ? Stranger, with wild animal inside her, always diffrent from others, distant, hidden behind own dreams. Joana examining her life, her soul. Joana in the mirrors, in the rain, in the stars. Sadly a happy woman. Thoughts flow through her mind incessantly, her soul scattered on millions atoms, sliding from one truth to the other, and still questions and more questions. What would become of Joana.Clarice Lispector was born in the Ukraine and was taken to Brazil as a young child. She was a law student, editor, translator, and newswriter, who traveled widely, spending eight years in the United States. "Family Ties" (1960) is a collection of short stories revealing Lispector's existentialist view of life and demonstrating that even family ties and social relationships are temporary. Although tied to each other and to the outside world, the characters are finally totally alone and separate. Lispector received praise from American critics for "The Apple in the Dark" (1967), a novel about a guilt-ridden man's search for the ultimate knowledge (Eve's apple), which he believes will bring him hope. Lispector's books are being translated into various languages in Europe, especially in France, where the critic Helene Cixous is one of her great admirers and a promoter of her works. Clarice Lispector's sensational, prize-winning debut novel Near to the Wild Heart was published when she was just twenty-three and earned her the name 'Hurricane Clarice'. It tells the story of Joana, from her wild, creative childhood, as the 'little egg' who writes poems for her father, through her marriage to the faithless Otavio and on to her decision to make her own way in the world. As Joana, endlessly mutable, moves through different emotional states, different inner lives and different truths, this impressionistic, dreamlike and fiercely intelligent novel asks if any of us ever really know who we are.Clarice Lispector was a Brazilian novelist and short story writer., Her innovation in fiction brought her international renown. References to her literary work pervade the music and literature of Brazil and Latin America. She was born in the Ukraine in 1920, but in the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Civil War, the family fled to Romania and eventually sailed to Brazil., In 1933, Clarice Lispector encountered Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf, which convinced her that she was meant to write. She published her first novel, Near to the Wildheart in 1943 when she was just twenty-three, and the next year was awarded the Graca Aranha Prize for the best first novel. Many felt she had given Brazillian literature a unique voice in the larger context of Portuguese literature., After living variously in Italy, the UK, Switzerland and the US, in 1959, Lispector with her children returned to Brazil where she wrote her most influential novels including The Passion According to G.H. She died in 1977, shortly after the publication of her final novel, The Hour of the Star. In my review of The Complete Stories, I neglected to say what a sensory experience Lispector's writing is, which is also true of this, her first novel. Certain passages I’ve highlighted help explain for me how integral the mixture of senses is to her vision and her unique voice.

All of me swims, floats, crosses what exists with my nerves, I am nothing but a desire, anger, vagueness, as impalpable as energy.” Aproape de inima vijelioasă a lumii (titlul i-a fost propus de editor și este un citat din Potret al artistului la tinerețe de Joyce), există un narator (sfios și foarte puțin vorbăreț) care povestește, uneori, rar, despre Joana, despre tatăl ei și, în a doua parte a cărții, despre soțul ei, un anume Otávio, dar mai ales avem monologul interior al Joanei care ajunge să acopere nu numai discursul naratorului, ci și monologul interior al lui Otávio și orice alt discurs în general. Near to the Wild Heart is the debut book by Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector the book was launched in 1944. There was a great, still moment, with nothing inside it. She dilated her eyes, waited. Nothing came. Blank. But suddenly the day was wound up and everything spluttered to life again, the typewriter trotting, her father's cigarette smoking, theI met Clarice Lispector at the exact moment that she published Near to the Wild Heart. The meeting took place in a restaurant in Cinelândia. We had lunch and our conversation strayed from literary matters. … The least I can say is that she was stunning. It was autumn, the leaves in the square were falling, and the grayness of the day helped underscore the beauty and luminosity of Clarice Lispector. Alongside the foreign climate was that strange voice, the guttural diction which rings in my ears to this day. In October 1944, the book won the prestigious Graça Aranha Prize ( Prêmio Graça Aranha) for the best debut novel of 1943. The prize was a confirmation of what the Folha Carioca had discovered earlier that year when it asked its readers to elect the best novel of 1943. Near to the Wild Heart won with 457 votes: a spectacular number, considering that only nine hundred copies had actually been put on sale. Each night, she approaches sleeping as if it was an adventure, falling from the easy clarity in which she lived into the same mystery, dark and cool, crossing darkness. Dying and being reborn. Che cosa si ottiene quando si è felici, dopo che si è felici che cosa succede, cosa viene? Essere felici serve a raggiungere che cosa?