Jose Saramago Nobel Prize in Literature, 1998 Date of Birth: 16.11.1922 Country: Portugal

1. Biography of José Saramago
2. Philosophical Reflections and Political Themes
3. Controversial Works and Literary Recognition

Biography of José Saramago

José Saramago, a Portuguese writer and poet, playwright and translator, was born in a small village called Azinhaga, located 100 km from Lisbon, into a family of landless peasants. In 1924, his family moved to Lisbon. After completing primary school, José Saramago continued his education at a grammar school, where he excelled. At the age of 12, he was elected treasurer of the student union. However, due to financial constraints, his parents sent him to a technical school, where he studied mechanics. He worked as a mechanic in an automotive workshop for two years while attending a public library in Lisbon in the evenings. José Saramago married at the age of 22 while working in the civil service for administrative civil servants. In 1947, when his daughter Violante was born, he published his first novel, "The Widow" (published as "Land of Sin" at the insistence of the editor). He then began writing several more novels but eventually realized that he had nothing to say to the world. For 19 years, he disappeared from Portuguese literature, but few noticed. It was not until 1966 that "Possible Poems" were published, marking his return to literature.

Philosophical Reflections and Political Themes

One of Saramago's most prominent qualities was his inclination towards philosophical reflection on reality. His novel "The Manual of Painting and Calligraphy," the collection of philosophical novellas "Quasi-Object" (1978), and his poetry collections "Possible Poems," "Perhaps It Is Joy" (1970), and "From This and That World" (1971), as well as his plays, primarily focused on political issues. From 1971 to 1973, he worked as an editor and cultural affairs manager at the evening newspaper "Diario de Lisboa."

In 1978, Saramago published the collection of short stories "Quasi-Object" (1979) and the play "Night," followed by another play, "What Shall I Do with This Book?" In 1980, his novels "Raised from the Ground," "Baltasar and Blimunda" (1982), "The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis" (1984), "The Stone Raft" (1986), and "The History of the Siege of Lisbon" (1989) were published. Saramago's work is multifaceted and contradictory. On one hand, José Saramago was a committed Marxist and a member of the Communist Party. His political beliefs are evident in two novels translated and published in our country during the Soviet era: "Raised from the Ground" (1982) and "Memorial do Convento" (1985). The ideological nature of these novels is beyond doubt. However, on the other hand, José Saramago was a multi-talented writer whose talent did not fit within the confines of Marxism-Leninism. Even in these two mentioned novels, the author's ability to "empathize" with the thoughts and feelings of his characters and convincingly depict the spirit of a specific era is evident.

Controversial Works and Literary Recognition

Saramago's novel "Memorial do Convento," which Federico Fellini planned to adapt for the screen, angered the Vatican with its anticlerical attacks. However, the most intense outrage from the Catholic Church and accusations of blasphemy were provoked by Saramago's book "The Gospel According to Jesus Christ," published in 1991. This "blasphemous book, which mocks historical truth and distorts the characters of the main figures of the New Testament," has been translated into 25 languages and reprinted around 20 times in Portugal. Readers' interest in this novel, as well as another famous book by Saramago, the satirical dystopia "The Stone Raft" (1986), is least associated with the deformations of evangelical heroes or the acerbic descriptions of contemporary politicians and nouveaux riches. The writer is often associated with the genre of "magical realism" and compared to famous Latin Americans such as Borges, Cortázar, and García Márquez. However, the Portuguese author prefers to distance himself from these analogies, asserting that he is much more influenced by Cervantes and Gogol. In 1995, José Saramago was awarded the Camões Prize, and in 1998, he received the Nobel Prize in Literature "for works that, with parables supported by imagination, compassion, and irony, enable us to understand the illusory reality."

In 2000, his novel "The Cave," which completed the trilogy that included the previously written "Blindness" and "All the Names," was published. José Saramago was a talented autodidact who dedicated himself to literature from a young age and achieved recognition only in his 60s. Despite his consistent communist views, no one, except the Vatican administration, disputed his right to be counted among the greatest writers of the century. Although the writer once bitterly stated that sometimes he feels that "it is easier to reach the planet Mars than to touch the hearts of our contemporaries," his own experience contradicts this pessimism.