"The Persians of this story": On the Poetic-political in José Saramago

Abstract

The main reason behind “saramagia”, a term coined in Mexico in 1998, is Saramago’s visit to Chiapas after the Acteal massacre, and the warm reception he received from so many cultural and social agents in his many visits to the country. In the essay “Chiapas, name of pain and sorrow” (1998), in defense of indigenous peoples, Saramago resorted to the metaphor of the “Persians”, alluding to Montesquieu’s Lettres Persanes (1721), because he wanted to stress the importance of learning to understand the Other from their place and perspective. This article argues that there is a poetic-political condition in the life and work of José Saramago. Based on brief analyses of selected aspects of the poems in The Year of 1993 (1975) and his novels Baltasar and Blimunda (1982), The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (1984), and The Elephant's Journey (2008), I maintain that the Chiapas episode illustrates an overlapping of life and work from a critical and ethically responsible conscience. The poetic-political in Saramago could be interpreted as a simultaneously liberating and libertarian endeavor, to confront, among other aspects, economic-political neo-colonialism and patriarchal capitalism. It is noted, with certain reservations, that there is a proximity with artivist and performative elements, as well as with the thought of decoloniality. This would also allow us to compare Saramaguiano’s work and activism, including his transiberist thought, with artistic forms that seek to politically perform critical knowledge.