SOURCE: "A Writer in Transition: Clarice Lispector and A via crucis do corpo" in Latin American Literary Review, Vol. 16, No. 32, July-December, 1988, pp. 41-52.

In the following essay, Fitz analyzes the themes, style, and role of the reader in A via crucis do corpo. He then compares the collection with Lispector's earlier fiction, and claims the stories are transitional because of Lispector's overt concern with sexuality and self-consciousness but adds that they also contain elements and preoccupations that characterize her best work.

Although it is often overlooked by scholars interested in her fiction, Clarice Lispector's The via crucis do corpo[1974; The Via Crucis of the Flesh] ranks as a singular achievement. This collection of thirteen short stories (plus an "explanatory" note by Lispector herself) is not what a reader accustomed to Lispector's fiction would expect, however. Indeed, four features make it stand out from her earlier work: there is...