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José Saramago

ホゼ・デ・ソウザ・サラマーゴ

Jose de Sousa Saramago

Profile

Gender
Male
Born
1922-11-16 （Azinhaga, Santarém, Portugal）
Died
2010-06-18 （Tías, Las Palmas, Canary Islands, Spain） age 87
Nationality
Portuguese
Languages
Portuguese
Religion
Atheism
Residence History
Lisbon, Portugal → Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain

Career

Occupations
Writer, Translator, Journalist
Active Years
1947-2010
Memberships
Portuguese Communist Party, National Front for the Defense of Culture (founding member)
Influenced By
Isabel da Nóbrega (literary mentor), Fernando Pessoa
Influenced
Contemporary Portuguese-language writers, International literary community (influence on allegorical and political fiction)

Education

Technical school (Lisbon)
Industrial/lathe operator training
Country: Portugal
Trained as a lathe operator in youth. No confirmed university degree.

Awards

Camões Prize
1995
Organization: Camões Prize Committee
Result: winner
Nobel Prize in Literature
1998
Organization: Swedish Academy
Result: winner
America Award in Literature
2004
Organization: America Award organizers
Result: winner
São Paulo Prize for Literature (shortlisted)
2009
Work: The Elephant's Journey
Category: Best Book of the Year (shortlist)
Organization: São Paulo Prize Committee
Result: shortlisted

Awards & Nominations

Works

Major Works

Memorial do Convento (Baltasar and Blimunda)

1982 Historical novel / Baroque fiction

A baroque tale set in 18th-century Lisbon about love, faith and a renegade priest's dream of flight, blending history and imagination.

LoveInterplay of history and fictionReligion and power
Translations
  • Baltasar and Blimunda

The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

1984 Historical/philosophical novel

Follows Ricardo Reis, a heteronym of Fernando Pessoa, who survives beyond the poet's death; explores memory, identity, and historical uncertainty.

IdentityMemoryHistoric interpretation
Translations
  • The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis

The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

1991 Historical / religiously critical fiction

A reinterpretation of biblical narratives that portrays Jesus and God as fallible humans, critically examining religious institutions and faith.

Critique of religionHumanityEthics
Translations
  • The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

Blindness

1995 Dystopian / Allegory

An unnamed country is struck by a mysterious 'white blindness', serving as an allegory about social collapse, solidarity and human ethics.

Solidarity and isolationEthics and societal collapseIdentity
Adaptations
  • [Film] Blindness / Fernando Meirelles (2008)
Translations
  • Blindness

All the Names

1997 Philosophical novel

An isolated clerk's obsessive search for a single woman's name leads him to question existence and bureaucratic systems.

BureaucracyIndividual vs institutionIdentity
Translations
  • All the Names

The Double

2002 Psychological novel / Suspense

About a man who discovers his exact double; explores questions of self, otherness and identity.

DualityIdentitySelf-recognition
Translations
  • The Double

Death with Interruptions

2005 Fantastical allegory

An allegory in which nobody dies in a country, exploring the social, spiritual and political consequences.

Attitudes to deathFragility of institutionsEthics
Translations
  • Death with Interruptions

Cain

2009 Religious allegory / Controversial fiction

A provocative reimagining of biblical stories that interrogates the relationship between God and humanity.

Religious critiqueMoralityGod and man
Translations
  • Cain

The Elephant's Journey

2008 Historical fiction / Journey tale

Based on a historical episode about an elephant's journey in the 18th century, exploring cultural contact and human relations.

JourneyCultural exchangeHuman drama
Translations
  • The Elephant's Journey

Bibliography

  • Land of Sin (1947)
  • Possible Poems (1966)
  • Manual of Painting and Calligraphy (1977)
  • Memorial do Convento / Baltasar and Blimunda (1982)
  • The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (1984)
  • The Stone Raft (1986)
  • The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991)
  • Blindness (1995)
  • All the Names (1997)
  • Death with Interruptions (2005)
  • Cain (2009)
  • Skylight (Claraboia) (posthumous, 2011)

Adaptations

  • Blindness (film, 2008, dir. Fernando Meirelles)

Translations of Works

  • Major works such as Baltasar and Blimunda have been translated into English, Spanish and many other languages

Style & Themes

Literary Style
Long, complex sentences with sparse full stops and heavy use of commasDialogue often presented without quotation marksAllegorical and parabolic techniques
Recurring Motifs
IdentityHuman conditionReligion and powerIsolation and solidarity

Health

  • Leukemia
    晩年（診断年は明記されていない）
    Long-term health impact that affected his later life and contributed to his death in 2010.
  • Pneumonia (suffered the year before death)
    2009–2010
    Temporarily affected his health; reported recovery followed by lingering effects.

Legacy

One of Portugal's most important writers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Known for allegorical political themes and a distinctive style; awarded the 1998 Nobel Prize in Literature. His legacy continues via the José Saramago Foundation.

Museums

  • José Saramago Foundation (Casa dos Bicos) Lisbon, Portugal (Casa dos Bicos) Opened in 2007

Academic Societies

  • National Front for the Defense of Culture (involved in founding)

Archives

  • José Saramago Foundation archives (Lisbon)
  • Donations to the Nobel Prize Museum (Stockholm) including personal items

In Popular Culture

  • Film adaptation Blindness (2008) and other screen adaptations brought international visibility
  • Translated into many languages, securing a global readership

Quotes

  • "Parables sustained by imagination, compassion and irony, who continually enables us once again to apprehend an elusory reality."
    Source: Nobel Prize citation (1998) (1998)
  • "I write two pages. And then I read and read and read."
    Source: Interview (2009) (2009)

Trivia

  • Reportedly sold more than two million copies in Portugal alone.
  • Spent his later years on Lanzarote with his wife Pilar del Río, who is also his Spanish translator.
  • His ashes were buried beneath an olive tree in front of the José Saramago Foundation in Lisbon (2011).
  • Longtime member of the Portuguese Communist Party and outspoken on political issues.