ENSAIO SOBRE A CEGUEIRA: A VOZ DE UM NARRADOR MUITO ANTIGO

Abstract

Strangeness. Definitely this is the immediate sensation caused by the reading of José Saramago’s texts. In part it is because his scripture subverts rules every reader seems accustomed to, like that, even from the most predictable ones, imposed by punctuation; and also because of the manner of telling of the narrator look likes an old storytellers, such those ones which tradition crystallized, what causes a coming and going which reveals a plurality of viewpoints and judgments which turn, for instance, the novel Ensaio sobre a cegueira, on the one hand into a material quite experimental, and on the other hand, a recuperator of a certain poetics of orality, based on old storytellers. However, the same characteristics, a priori, constitute the power of Saramago scripture, also generate a certain discomfort on readers accustomed to a linear reading, like that occasioned by the habitual use predicted by punctuation which, for this author, will be totally subverted. Thus, this paper points out an impossibility of reading Saramago’s texts without knowing his scripture, or his how to tell, so defended by the author, must be read as a characteristic of his production and a trace of his personal orality.