THE PAIN OF LONELINESS:

EROTIZATION OF THE LOOK IN A CIDADE SITIADA

Abstract

The objective of this work is to analyze the pain of loneliness, experienced by the character Lucrécia Neves, from the work A Cidade Sitiada, by Clarice Lispector, whose maximum manifestation is the eroticization of the eyes. Our thesis is that libidinal investments in the eye areas are associated with excessive envy, paranoid anxiety, an overwhelming archaic superego, and, therefore, with an unsuccessful Oedipus, already structured in the oral stage of the pre- genital, when the ego is still too immature to defend itself against the tyrannical power of the instincts of aggression, envy and hatred, preponderant factors in the introjection processes of the primordial objects, especially the mother. Thus, this analysis is essentially based on  thinking of Klein (1996; 1981; 1975; 1974), with regard to his concepts of envy, paranoid anxiety and archaic superego. In our view, Lucrécia Neves' loneliness goes back to the primordial scene, to the persecutory yearnings, expressions of her Oedipal repression.