Saramago, José (1922-2010), became the first author writing in Portuguese to win the Nobel Prize in literature. Saramago won the prize in 1998 for his novels.
In his fiction, Saramago used fantasy, the supernatural, and symbols to explore his favorite theme, the conflict between the individual and authority. Some of his writings stirred controversy because they supported his Communist views. He first gained international recognition with Baltazar and Blimunda (1982). The novel is a fantasy set in Portugal in the 1700’s against the background of the Inquisition, an institution established by the Roman Catholic Church to punish people who opposed its teachings. The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (1984) follows the romantic adventures of a poet-doctor. One of the characters is the ghost of the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa. Portuguese conservatives accused Saramago of blasphemy against organized Christianity for his bitter satire The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991).
José De Sousa Saramago was born into an impoverished family on Nov. 16, 1922, in Azinhaga, Portugal, near Lisbon. He grew up in Lisbon. He wrote his first novel, Country of Sin, in 1947. However, he did not turn to a full-time literary career until after 1974, when a revolution overthrew a dictatorship that had ruled Portugal since the late 1920’s. Saramago’s other novels include Raised from the Ground (1980), The Stone Raft (1986), The History of the Siege of Lisbon (1989), Blindness (1995), All the Names (1997), The Tale of the Unknown Island (1999), The Cave (2000), The Double (2004), Seeing (2006), Death with Interruptions (2008), and The Elephant’s Journey (2010). Saramago also wrote essays, plays, poetry, and several volumes of a journal. Saramago’s Small Memories: A Memoir was published in 2011, after his death on June 18, 2010.
