From the rubble to the pregnancy of words: José Saramago and Gonçalo Tavares in symbolic dialogues

Abstract

José Saramago and Gonçalo M. Tavares display contrasting narratives. Perhaps almost opposite to each other. One is Baroque, ornate. The other is economical, rough. While Saramago has as inde­lible mark the presence of an excessive, demiurge narrator, Tavares chooses a drier, less digressive literature, with short, strong blowing sentences. Meanwhile, there is a less read (and studied) José Saramago prior to the discovery of his Narrator introduced in 1980. It’s the narrative voice of O ano de 1993, which offers an apocalyptic setting, resembling the literary work of Um homem: Klaus Klump. The two narrators build texts that share equal symbolism, in particular relating to the defacement of space, to collapse, to chaos in times of war. Under the light of the studies of the Ima­ginary, inspired by Gilbert Durand and Gaston Bachelard, this article explores spatial destruction and recurrent and, at times, complementary ima­gery perceptible in O ano de 1993 and Um home: Klaus Klump.