JOSÉ DE SOUSA SARAMAGO was born on November 16 1922 of the village of Azinhaga ( Golegã municipality in the central district of Ribatejo, Portugal ), near the Tagus River to
His parents were José de Sousa and Maria de Piedade, a landless peasant family and low income. This source would mark deeply the character and ideology of the writer. The nickname his father's family was Saramago (named after a wild herb of the family of cruzáceas .) The baby should have been named Joseph Sousa, but the registrar made a "slip of the pen ('slip of the pen') and scored as Jose 'Saramago." The official record mentions the 18th of November, but was 16.
In 1924 the family moved to Saramago Lisbon, where his father began working for police. A few months after the move, the death of his brother Francisco, two years older. Saramago never lost his connection with his village of birth, where his visits were numerous.
In
Although Saramago was a good student, was unable to finish their studies because their parents could no longer pay the school, so to keep your family Saramago worked for two years in a blacksmith mechanics. Meanwhile, without any guide, will read the entire public library district.
soon change jobs and start the administrative work
working in an insurance company. Simultaneously working as a journalist in Diário de Notícias , a national newspaper, but for political reasons is soon ejected. Then worked as a literary critic of the journal Seara Nova and was cultural commentator. He was part of the first address
suffered censorship and persecution during the dictatorship of Salazar . Gets a job at a publishing house (where he worked for twelve years). In his spare time translating: Maupassant, Tolstoy , Baudelaire, Colette ...
In 1966 I published poems possíveis .
In 1969 he became a member of the Portuguese Communist Party (when it was still illegal). That same year she divorced Ilda and quits his job in publishing to fully engage life of writing, either as writer or as a novelist. In 1970 he published Probabelmente joy Between 1972 and 1973 was editor of "Diário de Lisboa ." In 1974 he joined the " Carnation Revolution" that brought democracy to Portugal . In 1975 he published O Year of 1993 .
His first novel was Levantado do chão (1980), a fresh and vivid portrait of the lives of workers Lavre in the province of Alentejo . With this book, Saramago manages to find his own voice, that unmistakable style, clear and almost poetic that distinguishes him. In the following years, Saramago published almost nonstop: Memorial do convento (1982), where it has the worst conditions of life of ordinary people in the dark medieval world, in times of war, famine and superstitions.
This book was adapted as an opera by Azio Corghi , and premiered at the Teatro alla Scala Milan with the title of Blimunda (the unforgettable female character in the novel). Corghi also adapted his play In Dei nomine, that the name of Divara was released in Munster . Of Azio Corghi is also the music of the cantata The death of Lazarus on Memorial texts convent, The Gospel According to Jesus Christ and In Dei nomine. It was performed for the first time in the church of San Marco in Milan. In 1984 Saramago published year O Ricardo Reis da morte and 1986 A raft of Pedra (The Stone Raft), where it has what would happen if the Iberian peninsula, it appears the European continent. That year (when I was 63 years old) met his current wife, the English journalist Pilar del Rio, born in Castril , Granada who finally decides to become his official translator, Castilian.
's novel The Gospel According to Jesus (1991) catapulted him to fame because of an unprecedented controversy in Portugal (which is considered a secular republic ), when the government grain submission to the European Literary Prize that year, claiming that "offends Catholics. " As an act of protest, Saramago leave Portugal and settled in the island of Lanzarote (Canary ). In 1995 published one of his best known novels, Blindness . In 1997 he published his novel All names, which also enjoyed great recognition. In 1998 he won the Nobel Prize for Literature, becoming the first writer Portuguese language to win the award. Since then shares his time between Lisbon and the Canary Islands, participating in social and cultural life of both countries with close relations justified in an interview to propose utopian idea of \u200b\u200bcreating a united Iberia
Style
Saramago is one of the most important novelists in contemporary literature. Skeptical
and intellectual, and has maintained a position ethics and aesthetics above political partisanship and commitment to human gender. SARAMAGO
tends to write very extensive sentences, using a score which at first glance may seem wrong, does not limit the dialogue, create sentences of more than one page in length through the use of commas where others had used points, and many of his paragraphs are so long as the chapters of most writers. Several critics have noted the similarity of this style with some religious oratory. In his novels often enter personal musings and reflections of a very different type, which performs a critical analysis of various aspects of reality. Surprisingly, the reader does not have much difficulty adjusting to read his unique prose style. His novels denounce
processes of decadence in the society, but there is always a character who acts exceptionally bravely against the current on what is in their power, without rubbing too much and sometimes heroic pathos. According to the writer, these are exceptions that make the world habitable.
One of his masterpieces THE CAVE, controversy, you can download to enjoy the full extent here in JOSE SARAMAGO
