The meaning of the journey and the landscape in Saramago

Abstract

José Saramago is a central figure of Portuguese Literature. The Nobel Prize winner always wanted to consolidate his identity to defend his moral position. Through an itinerary full of experiences and impressions, Saramago traveled all over his country while he was composing his book Viaje a Portugal (1980). Will it be possible to trace his own way of feeling the Portuguese landscape? Will it be possible to unveil a deeper meaning about his personal bonds to his native town and the whole territory of Portugal? Will it be possible to learn about him through his so called “cartografía de la memoria” (“Cartography of the Memory”), which is nothing less than his own memories and his aesthetic point of view? Finally, we have to ask what image of space Saramago’s own travel provides to the reader when he later translates it into a cartographic language. In this paper, we explore the geographical notion of Saramago’s own territory and the portuguese landscape. We do it by utilizing his own concept of travel. In this way, we can examine the elements that informed his spatial system, one which he developed guided by his “cartographic curiosity”. In other words, a geographical culture composed by rivers, mountains, stones and history.