Jose Saramago, the Portuguese Nobel of Literature






José Saramago, the Portuguese writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1998 died, June 18, 2010, at the age of 87. His ashes remaine in Lisbon.

He lived in Spain and Portugal, his wife is spanish. After Saramago death,  Pilar del Río, will come to Portugal as the new director of Fundação José Saramago. The fondation will continue to promote and preserve the study of the increadible literary work, correspondence and other works of the Portuguese Nobel Prize in Literature.



"Promover o estudo da obra literária do seu Instituidor bem como da sua correspondência e espólio e respectiva preservação".


Born to hard-scrabble origins, Saramago dropped out of school at 12 to train as a car mechanic. After different works, he began a self-taught  full-time writer in his late 50s.


José Saramago/ ©DR
Nobel Prize in Literature 1998







At the age of 87 Saramago was writing  a blog Outros Cadernos de Saramago that has a million followers at Facebook.




He said November, 29, 1998:


Começar a ler foi para mim como entrar num bosque pela primeira vez e encontrar-me, de repente, com todas as árvores, todas as flores, todos os pássaros. Quando fazes isso, o que te deslumbra é o conjunto. Não dizes: gosto desta árvore mais que das outras. Não, cada livro em que entrava, tomava-o como algo único.1)

José Saramago
Outros cadernos de Saramago, blogue

His message in this document is about the power of literacy!

Among his enourmous work, he wrote one book for children "A Maior Flor do Mundo" (2002)



The video is a animated version (2007) of his book. He is narrated and featured by José Saramago himself and it has a spanish version. The book can be find here

The animated movie won the best prize at "Animation at Anchorage Internacional Film Festival". He also has been nominated for "Goya 2008" as short film.

His novel "Ensaio sobre a Cegueira" - Blindness was adaptated to a film (2008) by Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles,  Festival de Cannes 2008.




Perhaps two good suggestions to introduce Saramago at school's curriculum talking about Portuguese Literature, the first (k-12) the second (secondary school)


G-Souto
20.06.2010
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