From the death of metamorphosis to death as metamorphosis: extra-human adresses by Hilda Hilst

Abstract

This work examines Hilda Hilst's 1980 book Da morte. Odes mínimas to first map, according to Jonathan Culler's Theory of the Lyric, the poem’s address to death and the way it employs apostrophe, which generates a decentering of the human. Focusing especially on poem XVI, in which the dash breaks with the lyric self, making it a “you” in relation to the other, we will examine the work’s dialogue with the Brazilian lyrical tradition, notably Augusto dos Anjos, Cruz e Souza, and Machado de Assis. In conclusion, we will refer to authors such as Emanuele Coccia and Maurice Maeterlinck to demonstrate how Hilst nuances death as a metamorphosis in which the human acquires a symmetrical position to nature, being simultaneously subject and object, in contrast to the historical treatment of death in capitalism, in which it is even denied.