Saramago’s Philosophical Heritage

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiii

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2. Introduction: Proteus the Philosopher, or Reading Saramago as a Lover of Wisdom

   • Carlo Salzani, Kristof K. P. Vanhoutte

   Pages 1-18

3. Correcting History: Apocalypticism, Messianism and Saramago’s Philosophy of History

   • Carlo Salzani

   Pages 19-37

4. The “Dark Side” of History: Saramago, Foucault, and Synchronic History

   • Maria Pina Fersini

   Pages 39-59

5. José Saramago’s “Magical” Historical Materialism

   • Andre Santos Campos

   Pages 61-80

6. Some Remarks on a Phenomenological Interpretation of Saramago’s Cave

   • Giuseppe Menditto

   Pages 81-99

7. Death by Representation: In Law, in Literature, and in That Space Between

   • Maria Aristodemou

   Pages 101-120

8. A Contemporary Midrash: Saramago’s Re-telling of the “Sacrifice of Isaac”

   • Federico Dal Bo

   Pages 121-142

9. Female Representations in José Saramago: A Space for Oppositional Discourses from the Canonical Gospels to The Gospel According to Jesus Christ

   • Camila Carvalho Santiago

   Pages 143-161

10. Saramago’s Axiology of Gender Difference

    • Ana Paula Ferreira

    Pages 163-191

11. Saramago’s Dogs: For an Inclusive Humanism

    • Carlo Salzani, Kristof K. P. Vanhoutte

    Pages 193-210

12. Traumatic Counterfactuals

    • David Jenkins

    Pages 211-232

13. Bye Bye Bartleby and Hello Seeing, or On the Silence and the Actualization to Do … Not

    • Kristof K. P. Vanhoutte

    Pages 233-252

14. Back Matter

    Pages 253-261

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The past decades have seen a growing “philosophical” interest in a number of authors, but strangely enough Saramago’s oeuvre has been left somewhat aside. This volume aims at filling this gap by providing a diverse range of philosophical perspectives and expositions on Saramago’s work. The chapters explore some possible issues arising from his works: from his use of Plato’s allegory of the cave to his re-readings of Biblical stories; from his critique and “reinvention” of philosophy of history to his allegorical exploration of alternative histories; from his humorous approach to our being-towards-death to the revolutionary political charge of his fiction. The essays here confront Saramago’s fiction with concepts, theories, and suggestions belonging to various philosophical traditions and philosophers including Plato, Pascal, Kierkegaard, Freud, Benjamin, Heidegger, Lacan, Foucault, Patočka, Derrida, Agamben, and Žižek.

• binding of Isaac
• Bartleby
• nobel prize
• literature
• cave

“This is a wide-ranging and original collection of essays, offering new perspectives on Saramago's writing from experts in fields including politics, theology, and gender studies. This work is a refreshing contribution to studies of Saramago and of contemporary world literature.” (David G. Frier, University of Leeds, UK)

“This collection marks a significant departure from conventional literary studies of the work of José Saramago as it probes the philosophical issues and relates them to important figures such as Benjamin and Agamben. It is one of the most innovative and ground-breaking volumes of essays on the Nobel Prize winner, at once very timely and certain to remain as a reference for future studies.” (Paulo de Medeiros, University of Warwick, UK)

• Independent Scholar, Munster, Germany

  Carlo Salzani

• University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa

  Kristof K. P. Vanhoutte

Carlo Salzani is an independent scholar and translator. He has published on Walter Benjamin, Giorgio Agamben, and contemporary German literature and philosophy more generally, both in English and in Italian.

 Kristof K.P. Vanhoutte is Research Fellow at the International Studies Group of the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa, and an Invited Professor of philosophy at the Pontifical University Antonianum, Rome, Italy.

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