A heritage: identity or narrative construction? Case study of Clarice Lispector’s house

Abstract

The discussion about the process of patrimonialization of real estate has become increasingly recurrent in today's society, in an effort to preserve assets considered as cultural. The purpose of this article is to discuss which criteria will be adopted to select among so many properties, and which will be chosen as more or less important to be listed and if it is possible that the writer Clarice Lispector is in the memory of Recife in the same way that it is eternalized in her work. In the methodology, the aspects of the concepts of heritage, patrimonialization and memory were applied, as a basic way to guide the reflections generated, through qualitative research with documentary analysis of the current heritage legislation to try to understand these procedures as clearly as possible, we took as a case study the process of listing the House of Clarice Lispector. From its request to its approval, it is possible to discuss the various determinant aspects for the approval of the process. The choice is justified by her relevance as a writer of national and international recognition, by the architectural characteristics of the property and by a group of local academic intellectuals and literati. Another relevant aspect to be mentioned is the fact that society was not actively present in this process, since a cultural asset should be part of its individual and collective memory.