José Saramago
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"Seeing (2004) by José Saramago is an allegory of political apathy." --Sholem Stein |
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José de Sousa Saramago, (November 16, 1922 – June 18, 2010) was a Nobel-laureate Portuguese novelist, playwright and journalist. His works, some of which can be seen as allegories, commonly present subversive perspectives on historic events, emphasizing the human factor. Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1998. He founded the National Front for the Defense of Culture (Lisbon, 1992) with Freitas-Magalhães and others. In the last years of his life, he lived Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain.
Literary themes
Saramago’s novels often deal with fantastic scenarios, such as that in his 1986 novel, The Stone Raft, wherein the Iberian Peninsula breaks off from the rest of Europe and sails about the Atlantic Ocean. In his 1995 novel, Blindness, an entire unnamed country is stricken with a mysterious plague of “white blindness”. In his 1984 novel, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (which won the PEN Award and the Independent Foreign Fiction Award), Fernando Pessoa’s heteronym survives for a year after the poet himself dies. Additionally, his novel Death with Interruptions (also translated as Death at Intervals) centers around a country in which nobody dies over the course of seven months beginning on New Year's Day, and how the country reacts to the spiritual and political implications of the event.
Using such imaginative themes, Saramago addresses the most serious of subject matters with empathy for the human condition and for the isolation of contemporary urban life. His characters struggle with their need to connect with one another, form relations and bond as a community; and also with their need for individuality, and to find meaning and dignity outside of political and economic structures. Literary critic Harold Bloom considers Saramago the second greatest living novelist in the world, behind only Philip Roth, but roundly criticized his statements comparing the circumstances in the Palestinian territories to the Auschwitz concentration camp and his devotion to Stalinists.
See also
Bibliography
Title | Year | English title | Year | ISBN |
---|---|---|---|---|
Terra do Pecado | 1947 | |||
Os Poemas Possíveis | 1966 | |||
Provavelmente Alegria | 1970 | |||
Deste Mundo e do Outro | 1971 | |||
A Bagagem do Viajante | 1973 | |||
As Opiniões que o DL teve | 1974 | |||
O Ano de 1993 | 1975 | |||
Os Apontamentos | 1976 | |||
Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia | 1977 | Manual of Painting and Calligraphy | 1993 | ISBN 1857540433 |
Objecto Quase | 1978 | |||
Levantado do Chão | 1980 | |||
Viagem a Portugal | 1981 | Journey to Portugal | 2000 | ISBN 0151005877 |
Memorial do Convento | 1982 | Baltasar and Blimunda | 1987 | ISBN 0151105553 |
O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis | 1986 | The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis | 1991 | ISBN 0151997357 |
A Jangada de Pedra | 1986 | The Stone Raft | 1994 | ISBN 0151851980 |
História do Cerco de Lisboa | 1989 | The History of the Siege of Lisbon | 1996 | ISBN 015100238X |
O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo | 1991 | The Gospel According to Jesus Christ | 1993 | ISBN 0151367000 |
Ensaio sobre a Cegueira | 1995 | Blindness | 1997 | ISBN 0151002517 |
Todos os Nomes | 1997 | All the Names | 1999 | ISBN 0151004218 |
O Conto da Ilha Desconhecida | 1997 | The Tale of the Unknown Island | 1999 | ISBN 0151005958 |
A Caverna | 2001 | The Cave | 2002 | ISBN 0151004145 |
O Homem Duplicado | 2003 | The Double | 2004 | ISBN 0151010404) |
Ensaio sobre a Lucidez | 2004 | Seeing | 2006 | ISBN 0151012385 |
Don Giovanni ou o Dissoluto Absolvido | 2005 | |||
As Intermitências da Morte | 2005 | Death with Interruptions | 2008 | ISBN 1846550203 |
As Pequenas Memórias | 2006 | Memories of my Youth | ||
A Viagem do Elefante | 2008 | The Trip of the Elephant | ISBN 9789722120173 |