Saramago's labyrinths is the first book-length study to focus on the relationship between form and the content in Saramago's writing, paying particular attention to Ensaio sobre a Cegueira (Blindness) and Todos os Nomes (All the Names). Atkin provides a close textual analysis of Blindness and All the Names, and suggests that the labyrinth pervades Saramago's work, both in the form of the text, and as a literary and philosophical trope. She makes clear connections between these novels and Saramago's other literary works, and identifies ways in which Saramago causes the reader to return to and consider the philosophical, epistemological and ethical concerns and dilemmas that are recurrent in his literary output. Atkin's jargon-free approach to Saramago's complex ideas, and her thorough understanding of Portuguese history, culture and society, make this an accessible yet challenging guide to Saramago's fiction, for undergraduate and postgraduate students and scholars with or without prior knowledge of the Portuguese context.

Saramago's labyrinths focuses on both the form and the content of Saramago's writing, paying particular attention to Ensaio sobre a Cegueira (Blindness) and Todos os Nomes (All the Names). This is the first book-length study to relate the very structure of Saramago's texts to the ideas that he continued to return to throughout his writing career. In addition to her close textual analysis of Blindness and All the Names, Atkin makes clear connections between these novels and Saramago's other literary work, identifying the ways in which Saramago causes the reader to return to and consider the philosophical, epistemological and ethical concerns and dilemmas that are recurrent in his literary output. At the same time, she explains and analyses how Saramago's work has come to be seen as paradigmatic of many of the formal strategies, philosophical debates, and topical obsessions of western society in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, as well as situating it within the Portuguese cultural context.
Blindness and All the Names appear frequently on reading lists for Portuguese studies, comparative literature courses and even literary theory courses, at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Atkin's jargon-free approach to Saramago's complex ideas, and her thorough understanding of Portuguese history, culture and society, make this an accessible yet challenging guide to Saramago's fiction, for students and scholars with or without prior knowledge of the Portuguese context. Atkin offers a close, comparative analysis of the structure of Saramago's writing and suggests that the labyrinth pervades the Portuguese Nobel Laureate's work, both in the form of the text, and as a literary and philosophical trope.

Formato	Tapa dura
Número de Páginas	176
Lenguaje	Inglés
Editorial	Manchester University Press
Fecha de Publicación	2012-06-30
Dimensiones	8.6" x 5.5" x 0.9" pulgadas
Serie	Durham Modern Languages
Letra Grande	No
Con Ilustraciones	Si

Atkin, Rhian

Rhian Atkin teaches Portuguese Studies at the University of Liverpool and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. Rhian Atkin teaches Portuguese Studies at the University of Liverpool and is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester