Main masterpieces:
- Memória de Elefante (1979)
- Os Cus de Judas (1979)
- Conhecimento do Inferno (1981)
- Auto dos Danados (1985)
- Tratado das Paixões da Alma (1990)
- A Morte de Carlos Gardel (1994)
- Manual dos Inquisidores (1996)
- O Esplendor de Portugal (1997)
- Exortação aos Crocodilos (1999)
- Não Entres tão Depressa Nessa Noite Escura (2000)
- Boa Tarde às Coisas Aqui em Baixo (2003)
- Eu Hei-de Amar uma Pedra (2004)
21st Century Literature
Subjects and style
The novelty introduced by António Lobo Antunes's
novelistic reveals itself in several features that makes it unique.
Many of the books of António Lobo Antunes refer or are related to the whole process of moving from the end of the Estado Novo till the deployment of Democracy. The end of the Colonial War, the end of a bourgeois world marked by retrogade and conservative values. The problems of the quick social change on April 25 1974, and therefore the political instability experienced in Portugal. This process of change is reflected in family relationships. Usually in this author's novels appear dysfunctional families in which the individual is losing his references, in which communication is either null or superficial among its members. In general the anti-heroes are people from the liberal professions of "good families".
Many of the books of António Lobo Antunes refer or are related to the whole process of moving from the end of the Estado Novo till the deployment of Democracy. The end of the Colonial War, the end of a bourgeois world marked by retrogade and conservative values. The problems of the quick social change on April 25 1974, and therefore the political instability experienced in Portugal. This process of change is reflected in family relationships. Usually in this author's novels appear dysfunctional families in which the individual is losing his references, in which communication is either null or superficial among its members. In general the anti-heroes are people from the liberal professions of "good families".
At the same time, the cruel self-knowledge
of the country's pre-and post-revolutionary
is done with violence and negativity. The aim is not the lyricism of
a helpless rebellion, but on the contrary, playing the
black humor, the
annulment of any sentimentalism in
desacralization of the images of a recent past and lucid analysis of the collective madness and collapse.
It
is consensual to consider his writing as complex, obsessive with simultaneous descriptions and constantly changing of
narrators. In fact the
reader has some difficulty on reading his novels because, for example, it is not unusual to have changes
of narrator and the reader has a tendency to "lose the thread".
However although he is not
an author who chooses
to write in an easy way, Lobo Antunes
is a sales
phenomenon and is widely read internationally, especially
in Continental Europe.
Literary Awards
Among the awards stand out the following: Prize of Portuguese Writers' Association (1895 and 1999); France Culture Prize (1996 and 1997); The Austrian State Prize for European Literature (2000); Jerusalem Prize (2005); Camões Prize (2007); France Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (2008).
Director: Solveig Nordlund
A Morte de Carlos Gardel adapted into movie in 2011
Director: Solveig Nordlund
Cast: Albano Jerónimo, Celia Williams, Rui Morrison, Teresa Gafeira, Ruy de Carvalho
Watching movie trailer
Consulted sources:
Portal da Literatura Portuguesainfopédia_AntónioLoboAntunes
lithis
