Exhibition on José Saramago, Portugal's winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1998)

May 2019 saw an exhibition in the Merensky 2 Library focusing on the works and achievements of José Saramago, Portuguese author and winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in May 1998.

The exhibition was organised by the Embassies of Angola, Brazil, Mozambique, East Timor and Portugal, in partnership with the Portuguese lecturers of the University of Pretoria. The Library’s marketing office and the information specialist for Modern European Languages provided assistance too.

On exhibition were canvas hangings depicting extracts from his works, quotations by him and images of him, together with copies of his books – some in translated English versions.

Saramago’s most well-known works, most of which have been translated into English, are the following:

1947 - Terra do Pecado – English: Land of Sin

1980 – Levantado do Chão – English: Raised from the Ground (2012)

1984 – O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis – English: The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis (1991)

1991 – O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo – English: The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1993)

1995 – Ensaio sobre a Cegueira – English: Blindness (1997)

The exhibition was launched at an event on the 16^th of May in the Humanities building, and involved representatives from the Camoes Institute, the relevant embassies and the Department.

In an overwhelmingly English-centred world, we need to be reminded of excellence in and from other languages. Saramago’s Nobel Prize for Literature clearly indicates his prominent position in world literature. The following comment by fellow writer and journalist, Raquel de Queiroz illustrates the esteem in which he is held: “I am also honoured by the awarding of the Nobel Prize for Literature to Portugal’s José Saramago. He is a great writer in our language, for whom I feel the deepest admiration.” Praise for Saramago as novelist also came from Harold Bloom (2003), when he apparently described Saramago as "the most gifted novelist alive in the world today"[*], and from James Wood, who apparently praises "the distinctive tone to his fiction because he narrates his novels as if he were someone both wise and ignorant."[*] More than two million copies of Saramago's books have been sold in Portugal alone and his work has been translated into 25 languages. [*]

The Library is privileged to have been involved in hosting an exhibition commemorating Saramago’s Nobel Prize, and hopefully more of his works will be accommodated in our collection in future!

View the exhibition photographs. https://www.facebook.com/pg/UPLibraryServices/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10156282087771705

[*Information and quotations from Wikipedia article on Saramago].