José Saramago was the most prominent voice of Portuguese literature, the excellence of his writing allowed him to win the Nobel Prize, and what always characterized him was his facet of committed man, so works such as Essay on Blindness are released as an exceptional work. vehicle of catharsis and philosophical reflection, a legacy that invites us to “wake up”.
It is often said that Saramago was an agitator of consciences, has repeatedly denounced injustice and opposed any conflict of his time, so in one of his lectures he defined himself as a passionate writer, someone who needs to lift any stone, even though he knew that under the real monsters they could hide.
- This search for truth and this effort to awaken minds allowed him to shape a unique literary style.
- He used sustained parables of imagination.
- Irony.
- And compassion to outline a reality in which no one could remain indifferent.
After the death of José Saramago, his work continued to be reissued in different languages, the new generations continue to discover their voices and admire this polyhedric personality, who has even sought to supplement the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with his Charter of Duties and Obligations. .
He was the most illustrious writer that Portugal has offered us, along with other authors such as Fernando Pessoa. Saramago is responsible for a provocative, magical and disturbing work that invited us to analyze the present through her eyes.
“Today’s three diseases of man are lack of communication, technological revolution, and his life focused on personal triumph. “- José Saramago-
José de Sousa Saramago was born on November 16, 1922 in Goleg, Portugal. His parents were José de Sousa and Maria de Piedade, a couple of humble roots who lived from their work on earth. When little Joseph was two years old, they decided to move to Lisbon in search of a better life.
Located in the Portuguese capital, they enjoy some stability, their father began working as a policeman and had the opportunity to pursue a basic education, attending an industrial school for years until his parents could no longer afford more advanced training.
Thus, he had no choice but to start working in a car repair shop, however, in addition to this professional activity with which José Saramago made a living, he recorded another in parallel: that of a scholar, he never stopped reading, learning for himself and, above all, writing. Thus, at the age of 25, he published Terra do Pecado. The same year 1947, his daughter, Violante, was born after his first marriage.
From 1955, José Saramago began translating into Portuguese the works of Hegel and Tolstoy, while striving to give his style a maturity, to have the opportunity to succeed in his writings, but despite his talent, no publisher dares to put his work on the market.
After the rejection of his work Tragaluz, José Saramago took several years to try again, in fact, this only happened in 1966 when he tried again with Probably Alegria and later with O Ano of 1993, both have won the recognition of the publishers, so he began collaborating with the Portuguese publishing house Estedios Cor.
After achieving literary success, José Saramago felt the need to dably enter journalism. Get to work? Did you say notary? And, later, in the “Lisbon Diio”, he becomes deputy director and political commentator.
However, after the arrival of the carning revolution in Portugal on April 25, 1974, he decided to dedicate himself exclusively to writing, was a recognized and respected personality, and aspired to give the world more work, more books. , published Os Apontamentos, plays such as A Noite (1979) and short stories such as Objecto Fecil (1978).
In the 1980s, José Saramago was already a world-renowned author, achieving literary fame with Memorial do Convento; subsequently, A Jangada de Pedra (1986), the controversial The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991) and, above all, Essay. blindness (1995).
His writing was more refined and his books more engaged. Thus, in 1998, the Stockholm Committee (Sweden) awarded him the highest distinction: the Nobel Prize in Literature. At that time I already lived between two lands: Lisbon and Lanzarote. (Canary Islands) In the latter place, he shared his life with his last wife, María del Pilar del Rao Sánchez, a Spanish journalist and translator.
José Saramago died on June 18, 2010 of leukemia, was 87 years old and had started a new novel, of which he had written only 30 pages.
They’re not blind, they’re blind. With these words, José Saramago embodies one of the most disturbing argumentative metaphors of his work: in Essay on Blindness, he speaks of the inability of the human being to recognize others, which suddenly makes us infamous beings, creatures who need the counsel of others to understand and survive.
This work is a profound reflection on the human soul, it is a dystopian novel, in which no one is indifferent when he discovers how human beings have been suspended in a kind of white blindness that spreads like an infection. quarantine patients, subjecting them to strict regulations.
Of this group of people who are the protagonists of the narrative, only one can see: a woman who decides to accompany her husband to this chamber, being, at the same time, her eyes and a helpful look trying to help others. , the whole scenario is oppressive. There is no hygiene, the military does not hesitate to shoot when someone gets too close and degradation begins to invade the premises, everything suddenly takes the colors of a true dictatorship. Chaos reigns and hope is slowly consumed.
We are then faced with a work that presents us above all with the blindness of the human soul, that inability to recognize each other that evokes selfishness, loss of reason, conflict and fear, a scenario in which José Saramago invites us to a courageous morality. Reflection.
Essay on blindness is undoubtedly a blunt book, which is released as one of the great works of contemporary literature, which is always worth revising (or discovering for the first time).