José Saramago

José de Sousa Saramago
Born(1922-11-16)November 16, 1922
Azinhaga, Ribatejo, Portugal
DiedJune 18, 2010(2010-06-18) (aged 87)
Lanzrote, Spain
OccupationPlaywright, Novelist
NationalityPortugal
Period1947-present
Notable worksBaltasar and Blimunda, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

José de Sousa Saramago, (pronounced|ʒuˈzɛ sɐɾɐˈmagu; born November 16, 1922; died June 18, 2010) was a Portuguese writer, playwright and journalist.

Saramago was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998. He lived on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands, Spain.

Biography

Saramago was born into a family of landless peasants in Azinhaga, Portugal, a small village in the province of Ribatejo some hundred kilometers north-east of Lisbon.

Saramago married Ilda Reis in 1944. Their only child, Violante, was born in 1947. Since 1988, Saramago has been married to the Spanish journalist Pilar del Río, who is the official translator of his books into Spanish.

José Saramago was in his mid-fifties before he had international success; his novel Baltasar and Blimunda brought him an international readership. This novel won the Portuguese PEN Club Award.

Saramago was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party from 1969, until his death [1] as well as an atheist[2] and self-described pessimist.[3] His views have aroused considerable controversy in Portugal, especially after the publication of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ.[4]

Themes

Saramago uses for his works fantastic scenarios. In his 1986 novel, The Stone Raft, the Iberian Peninsula breaks off from the rest of Europe and sails about the Atlantic Ocean. In his 1995 novel, Blindness, an entire country is stricken with a mysterious plague called “white blindness”.

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 1-85754-043-3
Objecto Quase 1978
Levantado do Chão 1980
Viagem a Portugal 1981 Journey to Portugal 2000 ISBN 0-15-100587-7
Memorial do Convento 1982 Baltasar and Blimunda 1987 ISBN 0-15-110555-3
O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis 1986 The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis 1991 ISBN 0-15-199735-7
A Jangada de Pedra 1986 The Stone Raft 1994 ISBN 0-15-185198-0
História do Cerco de Lisboa 1989 The History of the Siege of Lisbon 1996 ISBN 0-15-100238-X
O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo 1991 The Gospel According to Jesus Christ 1993 ISBN 0-15-136700-0
Ensaio sobre a Cegueira 1995 Blindness 1997 ISBN 0-15-100251-7
Todos os Nomes 1997 All the Names 1999 ISBN 0-15-100421-8
O Conto da Ilha Desconhecida 1997 The Tale of the Unknown Island 1999 ISBN 0-15-100595-8
A Caverna 2001 The Cave 2002 ISBN 0-15-100414-5
O Homem Duplicado 2003 The Double 2004 ISBN 0-15-101040-4
Ensaio sobre a Lucidez 2004 Seeing 2006 ISBN 0-15-101238-5
Don Giovanni ou o Dissoluto Absolvido 2005
As Intermitências da Morte 2005 Death at Intervals 2008 ISBN 1-84655-020-3
As Pequenas Memórias 2006

References

  1. ↑ http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1998/bio-bibl.html Nobel Prize citation, 1998
  2. ↑ "The God Factor". Archived from the original on 2009-03-06. Retrieved 2008-02-20.
  3. ↑ Langer, Adam. "José Saramago: Prophet of Doom." Book Magazine November/December 2002.
  4. ↑ "Austin, Paige. "Shadows on the Wall." The Yale Review of Books Spring 2004". Archived from the original on 2010-09-01. Retrieved 2008-02-20.

Bibliography

  • Baptista Bastos, José Saramago : Aproximação a um retrato, Dom Quixote, 1996
  • T.C. Cerdeira da Silva, Entre a história e aficção : Uma saga de portugueses, Dom Quixote, 1989
  • Maria da Conceição Madruga, A paixão segundo José Saramago : a paixão do verbo e o verbo da paixão, Campos das Letras, Porto, 1998
  • Horácio Costa, José Saramago : O Período Formativo, Ed. Caminho, 1998
  • Helena I. Kaufman, Ficção histórica portuguesa da pós-revolução, Madison, 1991
  • O. Lopes, Os sinais e os sentidos : Literatura portuguesa do século XX, Lisboa, 1986
  • Carlos Reis, Diálogos com José Saramago, Ed. Caminho, Lisboa, 1998
  • M. Maria Seixo, O essencial sobre José Saramago, Imprensa Nacional, 1987
  • "Saramago, José (1922-)." Encyclopedia of World Biography. Ed. Tracie Ratiner. Vol. 25. 2nd ed. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005. Discovering Collection. Thomson Gale. University of Guelph. 25 Sep. 2007

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