t IIIIIII ill I ii ill HIM m i l inn I I I I I iiui mi n
A/473084
IBERIAN AND LATIN AMERICAN STUDIES
The Novels of
Jose Saramago
Echoes from the Past, Pathways into the Future
DAVID G. FRIER
UNIVERSITY OF WALES PRESS
CARDIFF
2007
Contents
Series Editors' Foreword
Acknowledgements
xi
xiii
Abbreviations
xv
Introduction
1
1. Jose Saramago, Nobel Laureate
1
2. A Voice Untamed
9
3. Portuguese History and Tradition
11
4. Literary, Political and Cultural Context of Saramago's
Novels
16
Notes
24
Chapter One
Privilege and Exclusion: Levantado do Chdo and Memorial do
Convento
31
1. Introduction
31
2. Social and Economic Relations
32
3. Domingos, Joao and Antonio Mau-Tempo: The
, Extinction of a Name, or the Inexorable Rise of a
Family?
44
4. The Suppression of Resistance
48
5. Alienation and Natural Processes
52
6. Hierarchies of Power
68
x
Contents
7. The Illusion of Permanence and the Potential for
Change
Notes
78
90
Chapter Two
'Alem da conversa das mulheres, sao os sonhos que seguram
o mundo na sua orbita': Centripetal and Centrifugal Forces 111
1. Introduction
111
2. 'No' News is Good News: Historia do Cerco de Lisboa
and O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo
113
3. From the Plough Buried in the Sand to the Hidden
Flying-Machine: Opportunities for Escape
133
4. From Blimunda to the Doctor's Wife: Gramsci and the
152
Transformation of Portugal
166
Notes
Conclusion: Death, the Ultimate Injustice; Love, the Ultimate
175
Triumph
1. As Intermitencias da Morte. Skeletons and Moths
175
2. Ricardo Reis and the Stasis of True Death
183
3. Oh Death, Where is thy Sting?
196
Notes
208
Bibliography
215
Index
227