Abwesenheiten, Echos, Fülle – Körperpoetiken bei Esther Seligson und Clarice Lispector

Abstract

This article takes a comparative look at the poetics of the body in four exemplary works by the Mexican author Esther Seligson (1941-2010) and the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector (1920-1977). The joint focus is on the reception of Lispector's work by Seligson, which has hardly been dealt with to date. In the works of both authors, corporeality becomes the subject of meta-linguistic reflections; in doing so, they explore the limits of what can be said and develop introspective ways of writing. The essay pursues the thesis that the body poetics of Seligson and Lispector can be read as reflections on a superordinate conditio humana, which – in the case of Lispector – also have post-anthropocentric echoes.