Miguel Sousa Tavares

Main masterpieces: 

• Anos Perdidos (2001)
• Equador (2003)
• Rio das Flores (2007)
• No Teu Deserto (2009)
• "Ukuhamba" (2010)
• Ismael e Chopin (2010)

Historical period in literature: 
21st Century Literature

Consulted sources:  

Portal da Literatura Portuguesa
infopédia_MiguelSousaTavares

Isabel Alçada e Ana Maria Magalhães

Main collections: 

• Uma Aventura (already with 53 adventures)
• Viagens no tempo 
• Ler Dá Prazer
• História de Portugal
• História e Lendas
• Livros do Dia e da Noite
• Asa Delta
• Floresta Mágica
• Quero Ser

Historical period in literature: 
21st Century Literature

Consulted sources:  

Portal da Literatura Portuguesa
infopédia_IsabelAlçada
infopédia_AnaMariaMagalhães
Uma Aventura e outras coleções
 

Nuno Júdice

Main masterpieces: 

• A Noção do Poema (1972)
• Plâncton (1981)
• A Partilha dos Mitos (1982)
• A Manta Religiosa (1982)
• A Condescendência do Ser (1988)
• Enumeração de Sombras (1989) 
• Um Canto na Espessura do Tempo (1992)
• Meditação Sobre Ruínas (1994)
• O Movimento do Mundo (1996)
• O Estado dos Campos (2003)
• O Anjo da Tempestade (2005)

Historical period in literature: 
21st Century Literature

Consulted sources:  

Portal da Literatura Portuguesa
infopédia_NunoJúdice

Daniel Sampaio

Main masterpieces: 

• Vozes e Ruídos – Diálogos com adolescentes (1993)
• Inventem-se Novos Pais (1994)
• A Cinza do Tempo (1997)
• A Arte da Fuga (1999)
• Tudo o Que Temos Cá Dentro (2000)
• Lições de Abismo (2002)
• Vagabundos de Nós (2003)

Historical period in literature: 
21st Century Literature

Consulted sources:  

Portal da Literatura Portuguesa
infopédia_DanielSampaio 

António Lobo Antunes

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)

Historical period in literature: 
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".

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).

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 Portuguesa
infopédia_AntónioLoboAntunes 
lithis

Lídia Jorge

Main masterpieces: 

• O Dia dos Prodígios (1980)
• A Costa dos Murmúrios (1988)
• O Vento Assobiando nas Gruas (2002)
• O Vale da Paixão (1998)

Historical period in literature: 
Contemporary literature, Existentialism period 

Consulted sources:  

Portal da Literatura Portuguesa
infopédia_LídiaJorge 
lithis

Agustina Bessa-Luís

Main masterpieces: 

• A Sibila (1954)
• O Manto (1966)
• Canção diante de Uma Porta Fechada (1966)
• As Fúrias (1977)
• O Mosteiro (1981)
• Os Meninos de Ouro (1983)

Historical period in literature: 
Contemporary literature, Existentialism period 

A Sibilia and its importance to the literature

Agustina Bessa Luís leads the reader to travel back in time and thought through A Sibilia that comprises a beauty and richness in language.

It is through magical pages that is possible to find real lives, underlined by the trace of the philosophy of life and the uncertain strikeout of the supernatural, mysticism and wisdom.

Sibila de Delfos-Roma by Michelangelo

Sibyl refers to the classic figure of the Sibyl of Delphi, that means fortune-teller and refers to the character Joaquina Teixeira, the Quina. The book doesn’t tell the story from birth to death of the protagonist, but tells the story of two previous generations of the family Teixeira and a later one. It tells conspiracies, intrigues and corruptions of relatives, servants, friends and enemies. There is also criticism of the rural bourgeoisie, but the novel emphasizes above all a reflection on the metaphysical dimension of the human being. Quina had no supernatural powers, was only shrewd and a practice counselor; no one called her sibyl. He died old and sick, but proud of the house saved from bankruptcy and the fortune she amassed.

This work portrays the role of several women from a farming family for prospecting and raising it. Men are presented as supporting characters and without much relevance to the success of the house, while women build together the whole clan forming a strong alliance.

The publication of A Sibila came to solve many of the impasses in which the evolution of contemporary novelistic got entangled. Actually the novel made possible the reconciliation between regionalism and universalism and annulled opposition between objectivity and subjectivity of the narrator.

The publication of A Sibilia, distinguished work with the awards Delfim Guimarães in 1953, and Eça de Queirós, in the following year, devotes Agustina Bessa-Luís as a leading name of the contemporary novelistic.

 

Adapted works into movies:

• Francisca based on Fanny Owen (1981)

Director: Manoel de Oliveira 

Cast: Tereza Menezes, Diogo Dória and Mário Barroso

Watching movie trailer

• Vale Abraão (1993)

Director: Manoel de Oliveira 

Cast: Leonor Silveira, Cécile Sanz de Alba and Luís Miguel Cintra

Watching movie trailer

Consulted sources:  

Portal da Literatura Portuguesa
infopédia_AgustinaBessa-Luís 
lithis

José Saramago

Main masterpieces: 

• Memorial do Convento (1982)
• O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis (1984)
• A Jangada de Pedra (1986)
• O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo (1991)
• Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira (1995)
• Caim (2009) 

Historical period in literature: 
Contemporary literature, Historical Realism period

 

Effort to revive the Portuguese history and identity through a new language

Saramago’s literary world consists of four key elements. First the question of modern man in a double logic of assuming a critical position on the past and at the same time, learn from the past. Second the introduction of supernatural elements but never keeping away from the real world. Third the attempt of a new language different in punctuation. Finally the journey not only in the real world but also inside the Man through imagination. With these elements of 'time', 'supernatural', 'torrential narrative' and 'journey' that interpenetrate his works searched for utopia through allegorical allusions, criticism and ethics.

Apart from the elaborate work of language, Saramago deeply deals with the problems of the contemporary Portugal and the identity of Lusitanian people. Besides showing the direction in which Portugal should follow and its world view, Saramago searches for the man's identity lost in modern society.
In conclusion, the magnitude of Saramago's works lies in the effort to evoke the history and identity of the 'lost homeland', together with the search for a new literary language in which states his experimental spirit.

 

Literary Awards

Among the awards stand out the Camões Prize (1995) – highest distinction given to the Portuguese-language writers, and Nobel Prize in Literature (1998), the first awarded to a Portuguese language writer.

Quotes that are worth remembering

"I think we are blind. Blind people who can see, but do not see."

 

"I never appreciated 'positive heroes' in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides a more 'productive' literary raw material, but because that is the way we humans really are."

 

"I can't imagine myself outside any kind of social or political involvement."

 

"Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be, 

of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced and felt."

 

"As citizens, we all have an obligation to intervene and become involved - it's the citizen who changes things."

 

"A human being is a being who is constantly 'under construction,' but also, in a parallel fashion, always in a state of constant destruction."

 

Ensaio Sobre a Cegueira adapted into movie in 2008

Original title: Blindness
Director: Fernando Meirelles

Cast: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Gael García Bernal, Danny Glover, Yoshino Kimura, Alice Bragam Sandra Oh

Watching movie trailer

Consulted sources:  

Portal da Literatura Portuguesa
infopédia_JoséSaramago 
lithis