José de Sousa Saramago

Nobel Prize for Literature

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Portuguese writer, one of the world’s most highly regarded contemporary novelists. As a journalist and Portuguese Communist Party member he was censored and persecuted during the years of the Salazar dictatorship. In 1974 he joined the “Revolution of the Lilies” that brought democracy to Portugal. A skeptic and intellectual, he has always maintained a posture that holds ethics and aesthetics above political partisanship, with a commitment to humankind. Currently, acclaimed as a universal writer, he divides his living between Lisbon and the Spanish island of Lanzarote (Canaries). Levantado do Chao (1980) was the novel that established him as the great mature and innovative Portuguese novelist. An historic novel taking place in the Alentejo between 1910 and 1979, written in the language of the countryside, its solid documented structure and humorous and sarcastic style aroused considerable attention in its day. Other works of great interest followed, including Baltasar and Blimunda (Memorial do Convento, 1982), The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis, 1984), The Stone Raft (A Jangada de Pedra, 1986), The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo, 1991), and Blindness (Ensaio sobre a Cegueira, 1995), a work in which the author warns from an ethical viewpoint about “the responsibility of having eyes when others lose theirs.” Saramago, skeptical but solidarian, reflects on whether hope will have a place in the face of this new millennium that humanity is living. In 1998 Saramago became the first Portuguese author to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature.

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