"No" - Jose Saramago's subversive creativity  from The History of the Siege of Lisbon to The Stone Raft: voyages into the idea of national identity

Mihai, Corina M.

"No" - Jose Saramago's subversive creativity from The History of the Siege of Lisbon to The Stone Raft: voyages into the idea of national identity

dc.contributor.author	Mihai, Corina M.
dc.date.accessioned	2009-02-19T10:58:44Z
dc.date.available	2009-02-19T10:58:44Z
dc.date.issued	2009-02-19T10:58:44Z
dc.description.abstract	Abstract This study outlines a reading of Saramago’s novels as tracing a reflective itinerary into history, questioning the modalities informing a contemporary consciousness, thus acknowledging and re–configuring the past. Through an interpretation of these narratives as ‘voyages into the idea of identity’ it is shown that they reveal a symmetrical pattern tracing the Portuguese national saga from its foundation myth in The History of the Siege of Lisbon to contemporary images of identity in The Stone Raft. In light of this, the analysis examines the subversive narrative strategies employed with regard to the interrogation of canonized historical facts that led to the construction of Portuguese cultural memory and identity. Although the discussion is particularly located within Portuguese texts, the issues raised are relevant within the broader context of Western civilization. It is argued that, within his fictional discourse, Saramago aims at a reformulation of the notion of identity, highlighting the importance of preserving and actively affirming one’s individuality. Drawing on the postmodern perspective of pluralism in the reconstruction of the past, this analysis explores the relationship between history, fiction, memory and identity as reflected in the narratives under discussion. The focus will be on the textual nature of historiography as well as on the relative character of memory, aspects suggesting the irretrievable nature of the past and the necessity of using various acts of supplementation, construction and invention when representing it. Furthermore, the dialogue between Saramago’s fictional canvass and the theoretical framework, drawing on the thinking of critics such as Hayden White, David Lowenthal, Tzvetan Todorov, Linda Hutcheon, is intended to situate Saramago’s stance viz–à-viz the truthfulness of historiography within the contemporary preoccupation with the representation and construction of the past with an eye to reflecting present needs.	en
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10539/6226
dc.language.iso	en	en
dc.subject	Saramago	en
dc.subject	history	en
dc.subject	fiction	en
dc.subject	memory	en
dc.subject	identity	en
dc.subject	anarchic movement	en
dc.subject	subversive strategies	en
dc.subject	utopia	en
dc.subject	dystopia	en
dc.subject	topos of the journey	en
dc.title	"No" - Jose Saramago's subversive creativity from The History of the Siege of Lisbon to The Stone Raft: voyages into the idea of national identity	en
dc.type	Thesis	en