A História de um livro sem fim: uma leitura sobre as representações da finitude em as intermitências da morte

Abstract

José Saramago (1922 - 2010) is defined by his singular writing, formed by long paragraphs and without traditional marks of dialogues, as spaces and dashes, indicating them by their own context, between capital letters, besides recording in their novels the most diverse subjects with much irony and humor. Thus, in the first instance, this research develops from a deepening, based on the studies of Ana Paula Arnaut (2008, 2011), about how constitutes the third phase of writing of the Portuguese author, considering that in the course of their innumerable novels the writer has undergone stylistic transitions and approaches until he moves on to the so-called Fable period, in which he has predominantly appropriated the structured of fable and the contemporary fantastic to compose his works. In this sense, this study has as object the book Intermitências da Morte (2005), in order to understand how the characters are constructed before the central theme of the plot; the death. In order to do so, the analysis unfolds as the narrative presents the theme of death personified as protagonist of the plot, initially occupying, in relation to the other characters, a role of biological phenomenon, later the most recognized figure in the realm of the imaginary, like a skeleton that lives in a parallel space accompanied by its scythe, to then acquire a new form, transfiguring itself into a woman, a position that changes its status within the narrative. In this way, with the construction of the character Death as a parameter of investigation, it is intended to contrast, from the theories of Norbert Elias (2001) and Philippe Ariès (2012) the elements that base the social historical transformations towards the finitude, considering that Saramago is used of diverse social processes with respect to the behavior of the man before the death to delineate its plot, not only in the way with which it concretizes the personage, but also it elaborates the action of the others involved in the plot with respect to death and to die.