Saramago After the Nobel

José Saramago won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998, the first Portuguese-language writer to do so. This volume is the first to focus on Saramago's late works, which continued to express his political convictions. As 2022 marks his centenary, this volume is dedicated especially to his works and all the futures they made possible to envision.

José Saramago, one of the most critically acclaimed writers worldwide, was distinguished with the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1998. This honour, the first to be bestowed on a Portuguese-language writer, marked one of the high points in a long and manifold career. Largely an auto-didact, Saramago never let fame obscure his clear vision of the world, tempered by a lifelong acquaintance with severe inequality, political struggle, but also success, be it in terms of the 1974 revolution that freed Portugal from nearly fifty years of dictatorship, be it in the growing acclaim he received since deciding to focus on writing. The Nobel Prize provided Saramago with a wider, perhaps more effective, base for expressing his opinions; but it did not bring about a rupture, either with his political convictions, or with his writing. In the large bibliography on Saramago sustained critical studies in English are still relatively scarce. This volume, composed by many diverse voices, and the first to focus on Saramago's late works, strives to address that gap. As 2022 marks Saramago's centenary, this volume is dedicated especially to his enduring memory and to all the futures his works made possible to envision.

Auteur

Paulo de Medeiros is Professor of Modern and Contemporary World Literatures in the Department of English & Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick. Previously, he was Associate Professor at Bryant College (USA) and Professor at Utrecht University (Netherlands). In 2011 2012 he was Keeley Fellow at Wadham College, Oxford and in 2013 and 2014 President of the American Portuguese Studies Association. He is also a Research Associate of the Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra. He has published widely on Comparative Literature and Critical Theory, as well as on Postcolonial Studies. With José N. Ornelas he edited a volume of essays on Saramago, Da Possibilidade do Impossível (2007). He is the author of two monographs on Fernando Pessoa: Pessoäs Geometry of the Abyss (2013) and O Silêncio das Sereias (2015). Most recently he co-edited a volume of essays on Contemporary Lusophone African Film (2021). His current projects include a study on Postimperial Europe. José N. Ornelas is currently Professor Emeritus and previously Professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1974 2017). He is a founder of the American Portuguese Studies Association and was its Vice-President (1998 2000) and President (2000 2002). He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in the Summer of 1995, 1996 and 1997, and also a Visiting Professor at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil on three different occasions. With Paulo de Medeiros he edited a volume of essays on Saramago, Da Possibilidade do Impossível (2007). He has published widely mostly on contemporary Portuguese narrative, including on women writers, and on postcolonial narrative. His current projects include several studies on José Saramago and an autobiography.

Contenu

Contents: Saramago and the 'Nobel Effect': On Literature as Cultural Capital, and the Activist- Author as Global Celebrity - Saramago and World- Literature - The History of Our Misunderstandings: God and Cain or Divinity and Humanity - José Saramago and the Bible: The Enchanted Reading of a Non- believer - For a New Way of Inhabiting the Earth: A Caverna [ The Cave ] and Other Writings by José Saramago - José Saramago and Literary Dogs - Metaphysical Mosaic: José Saramago's Novels - Saramago's O Homem Duplicado : Acting the Other, Multiplied Selves, and Uncanny Portraits - 'To have been and no longer be': The Angst Towards Death in Darwish's Mural and Saramago's Death at Intervals - Saramago in Dialogue with Autonecrography: From Handbook of Painting and Calligraphy to Death at Intervals - The Enigma Underlying José Saramago's The Elephant's Journey : Writing of a Dislocation or Symbolic Death Interruption? - Death at Intervals : Thanatography and Metamorphosis in José Saramago - Saramago's Don Giovanni: A Rebel without a Cause?