José Saramago: The Centaur

23 Novembro 2017, 10:00 • Helena Carvalhão Buescu

A brief note on José Saramago's biography and political views.

Reading and discussion of the short story "The Centaur":  the unresolvable hybridity and plurality of identity; the change of times and the maladjustment of mythology in civilized societies throughout the centuries (comparison with the idea of "disappearance of the noble hero" (George Steiner) through a textual reference to Cervantes' Don Quixote); notions on historiographic metafiction and the Romantic (19th century) motif of "the last survivor"; fantastic creatures (influence of Magical Realism) as outcasts.