Saramago's axiology of gender difference

Ana P. Ferreira

pp. 163-191

in: Carlo Salzani, Kristóf Vanhoutte (eds), Saramago's philosophical heritage, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2018

Abstract

The chapter argues for a contextual reading of female characters in relation to the resurgence of feminist activism in contemporary Portugal, from the late 1960s through the 1980s, informed as it was by broader currents of thought drawing from the avant-garde's engagement with Marxist post-structuralist perspectives informed by linguistics, anthropology and psychoanalysis. The six novels constituting Saramago's self-admitted first phase, from Manual of Painting and Calligraphy to The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, are the object of analysis. Aside from exposing the contradictions of the stereotypical roles assigned to women in revolutionary struggles, Saramago's engagement with embodied, sexualized feminine difference is the crux of his ongoing critique of masculine-normed Enlightenment reason. Ultimately, it confronts the pervasively tyrannical, dehumanizing meanings attached to women in the Judeo-Christian Western tradition.

Cited authors

Marx Karl

Saramago José