Learning to be (rep)aired: Saramago and lightness

Abstract

This study aims to propose a reflection on the initial phase of writing by the Portuguese author José Saramago, based on the attribute of Lightness, which is understood in the molds developed by Italo Calvino in his book Six memos for the next millennium. As one of the Norton Lectures written to be presented at the Harvard University, Calvino’s Lightness, more than a simple absence of Weight, deals with a precise and determined use of language in order to evoke a figurative image that has rarefied consistency and a high degree of abstraction. After a brief explanation about the three meanings of Lightness found in Calvino’s thought, its occurrence is identified in the book Manual of painting and calligraphy, by José Saramago. From this identification, it is intended to demonstrate that the Manual, written during Saramago’s return to the novelistic genre, is a double writing of crisis, where author and narrator go through a process of individuation of their deserted existence and try to overcome past failures through self-writing.