¿Narciso canonizante, o canonizador narcisista?: el intelectual y la ética en <i>El asco</i> y <i>A hora da estrela</i>

Abstract

In this essay I reflect on what it might mean and what it might entail, as an intellectual, to propose a canon, particularly a literary canon. From a reading of the novel El asco by Salvadoran writer Horacio Castellanos Moya, I derive an analogue system in which the figure of the intellectual is compared to the Narcissus of Greek mythology. For the calibration of this system, I propose a reading of the novel A hora da estrela by Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector. In both cases, the canonization of the text is compared to the act of contemplation before a mirror by the intellectual.