UC Berkeley Lucero

Title An Intertextual Intertwining of Mystic Nationalisms; Saramago's Post- Modern Challenge to the Pessoan and Salazarist Discourses in 0 Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis

Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3tz2f5vd

Journal Lucero, 10(1)

ISSN 1098-2892

Author McNee, Malcolm

Publication Date 1999

Peer reviewed

eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California An intertextual Intertwining of Mystic Nationalisms; Saramago's Post-Modern Challenge to the Pessoan and Salazarist Discourses in 0 Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis

Malcolm McNee University of Minnesota, EE. UU.

Approaching contemporary Portuguese of any universalizing, reifying, mythic, or fiction in light of its relationship to questions utopian discourse that would define Portugal of national identity and the post-modern or a Portuguese messianic vocation. concern with exposing fissures in the mono­ Demonstrating, as Ellen Sapega has put it, "a liths of History, an exceptionally complex lack of confidence in the traditional or peda­ and fruitful starting point is José Saramago's gogical discourses of identity", Saramago 1984 novel, 0 Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis. contrasts and intertwines the Salazarist dis­ This work is a clear attempt to deconstruct course with a number of other corresponding and problematize the symbols and ultrana­ and competing discourses, in what might be tionalist ideology of Salazar’s Estado Novo1. read as an effort to relativize all potentially By re-presenting many of the historical reductionist uses of language. He encourages events as well as the socio-economic and a reflection on History in general terms, political landscape of 1936 Lisbon, Saramago unveiling the discursive mechanisms of its effectively demonstrates the relativity and construction. He achieves this in O Ano da propagandistic nature of the official, repres­ Morte de Ricardo Reis through what Helena sive, reductionist discourses controlled by Kaufman has termed "historiographic com­ the Salazar regime. mentary”: Saramago, however, has a larger project Este tipo de comentário historiográfico, in mind than a simple dismantling of Salazar’s que reflecte sobre o construir da Historia, proto-fascist political ideology. Thus, while constrói urna das características essenciais refraining from a direct analysis of Portugal’s que distinguem a ficfáo histórica contem­ contemporary situation, he illuminates much poránea do romance histórico tradicional. . . of the problematic grounding; perhaps most Somente na ficfáo histórica contempornea a clearly and troublingly visible in the Historia em si surge como tema que recebe Salazarist appropriations and manifestations; tratamento reflexivo-historiográfico ó co­ of still pervasive if perhaps no longer domi­ rrespondente as tendencias da historiografía nant discourses on Portuguese national iden­ actual. Enquanto a metafic^áo historiográfi- tity. Saramago, it would seem, is distrustful ca, como o romance de Saramago, continua a

LUCERO 57 recorrer a urna visáo metafórica da Historia explore in greater detail Pessoa’s own con­ ou da relagáo presente/passado, a visáo cerns with reformulating and reinvigorating utópica foi totalmente rejeitada e substituida the Portuguese national identity/mythologi- pelo olhar irónico e consciente (132-33). cal discourse in an era of relative socio-eco­ This historiographic commentary is sus­ nomic stagnation and political instability. tained by the revelations and observations of Without intending a conveniently reduction­ an omniscient and critical narrator and the ist reading of Pessoa’s literary output and its reflections, conversations, and respective powerful existential and spiritual dimen­ gazes of two primary characters who bring to sions, for the purposes of this essay the the text their own historical dimension and exploration of Pessoa's work will be confined immense discursive baggage. Through these to the surface level evidence of his political two characters; Fernando Pessoa, Portugal's ideology and its relationship to the Salazarist most celebrated poet since Camóes, and one rhetoric and symbolism that Saramago resur­ of Pessoa’s heteronym's, Ricardo Reis; rects in his novel. Saramago introduces into the narrative the * * * Pessoan discourse — "um grande intertexto Perhaps the most apparent intersections cultural portugués", as Kaufman describes it of Pessoan thematics and Salazarist political (131) — which then engages throughout the rhetoric and symbolism center around the novel in a dialogue, directly and indirectly, utopian discourse of the imminent advent of with the Salazarist ultranationalist political King Sebastian's Fifth Empire. Under the narration of the Portuguese nation. leadership of a single, unifying spiritual and It is this dimension of Saramago’s novel political figure, Portugal was to emerge as that 1 would like to explore in this paper: the the center of a European empire which would juxtapostion and intertwining of the Pessoan be truly global. As Pessoa wrote in defense and the Salazarist discourses, and the implic­ of Portugal's privileged bid for the position it critique of both thus made by the author. of leader of a new world order: As Fernando Arenas has written: Este critèrio tern a confirmà-lo a pròpria O regresso de Ricardo Reis a Portugal em sociologia da nossa civilizagáo. Esta é forma­ 1936 (um ano depois da morte de Fernando da, tal qual está hoje, por quatro elementos Pessoa) implica a sua insergáo na Historia [inherited from the First through Fourth (aqui o Ano do título do romance é crucial). Empires as identified by Pessoa]: a cultura ...a insergáo do Ricardo Reis-personagem e grega, a ordem romana, a moral cristá, e o Fernando Pessoa-personagem fantasma na individualismo inglés. Resta acrescentar-lhe Historia (no Portugal Salazarista), que per­ o espirito de universalidade, que deve nece­ mite ao autor de fazer, duma parte, urna críti­ ssariamente surgir do carácter policontinen- ca mordaz ao regime de Salazar, e doutra tal da actual civilizagáo. Até agora náo tem parte, urna crítica igualmente mordaz ao havido senáo civilizagáo europeia; a univer- Fernando Pessoa-ente politico e ao Ricardo salizagáo da civilizagáo europeia é fogosa­ Reis-ente estético, que reflete até certo mente o mister do Quinto Impèrio (Portugal, ponto o modo de estar político do seu Sebastianismo e Quinto Impèrio 123-124). criador (39). Pessoa also grounded his conception of a In discussing this complex intertextuality Portuguese-led Fifth Empire in his character­ and metatextuality, it will be useful to ization of the distinct nature of the past

LUCERO 58 imperial mission of the Portuguese. The unifying force. Pessoa felt that Sebastianism ancient imperial impulse of the Portuguese was unique as a salvageable source of nation­ aspired to the discovery of new lands and the al inspiration and unity. As Gilbert R. Cavado conversion of their populations to has noted, as early as 1912, Pessoa had proph- Christianity, rather than simple material esized the coming of a "Super-Camóes" as domination. The idea of conquest was, well as a man of political force and power according to Pessoa, never a factor of great who would restore Portugal to its former importance in the Portuguese colonial expe­ glory and triumphantly usher in a Luso- rience. It was his assertion that Portugal was European civilization of truly global dimen­ the European nation that had exhibited sions (61). And as Pessoa asserted in writings toward, and inspired in, other races and from 1924: nations the least amount of hatred, thus 0 sebastianismo tern sido incompreendi- favoring it as a globally unifying force. do. Tornado por uns como sendo urna mera Pessoa verifies his assertion with a specific superstiçâo popular, por outros como um differentiation between Portugese and devaneio imperialista da decadéncia, o facto English imperialisms: é que ele tem sido, em geral, tido por assun­ Os indios da India inglesa dizem que sao to desprezível e obscuro .... Desprezível indios, os da Ìndia portuguesa que sao por­ está longe de serótanto pela rezáo, estrita- tugueses. Nisto, que nao provém de qualquer mente exotérica [sic] e sociológica, de que o cálculo nosso, está a chave do nosso possível sebastianismo é o único movimento profun­ dominio futuro. Porque a esséncia do grande damente nacional que tem havido entre nós, imperialismo é o converter os outros em tendo toda a força de um movimento reli­ nossa substáncia, o converter os outros em gioso, que é, e todo aquele cunho nacional nós mesmos (Portugal, Sebastianismo e que falta a todos os movimentos políticos Quinto Impèrio 129). entre nós . . . (Portugal, Sebastianismo e Pessoa, thus, conceived of the Portuguese Quinto Impèrio 133). Fifth Empire as cultural, spiritual, and lin- Pessoa’s concerns with fictionalizing into guistic/literary rather than material: "an poetic language, and thus revitalizing, the imperialism of poets”; or the Portuguese lan­ Sebastianist myth would coalesce into guage as the fatherland, transcending the Mensagem. Exploring the rich thematics of traumatic experience of geo-political and Portugal's past glories and its fall into rela­ economic decline Portugal had suffered since tive obscurity; the fog into which Sebastian the sixteenth century. As Maria Irene disappeared and from which will inevitably Ramalho de Sousa Santos writes: "The 'bro­ return; Pessoa also appoints himself as the ken tradition' of the Portuguese seaborne singer of the Fifth Empire. As Santos writes: empire will thus be made to give way to an The poet's task is then to recreate the imperialism of language and of poetry" (89). myth as fiction in the language of poetry, Pessoa’s self-appointed mission, revealing his such being the only credible future Portugal literary as well as nationalistic/patriotic aspi­ could still hope for. In other words, rations, was to re-invigorate Sebastianism Mensagem as the Fifth Empire. with new poetic life, to recuperate and trans­ So, Mensagem must be understood as form the myth of the Fifth Empire as a "cred­ Pessoa’s vision of Portugal's possible fulfill­ ible fiction", as a transcendent spiritual and ment as a nation, but way beyond national­

LUCERO 59 ism, as the very change of title — from great irony, the nationalist, "glorious past, Portugal to Mensagem — also stresses (89). glorious future" construction of identity re­ The ideological utility and quasi-reli­ presented or poetically re-prophesized in the gious, populist potential of Sebastianismo Pessoan literary discourse: was far from lost to the Salazar regime. For Diz-se, dizem-no os jomáis, quer por sua Pessoa, the nationalist evocation of the propria convicçào, sem recado mandado, mythologized glories of Portuguese imperial quer porque alguém lhes guiou a máo, se nao history and its idealized, distinguished nature foi suficiente sugerir e insinuar, escrevem os in the face of rival (and equally doomed) jomáis, em estilo de tetralogía, que, sobre a European imperial projects was a spiritual derrocada dos grandes Estados, o portugués, rather than material endeavor; the fount of a o nosso, afirmará a sua extraordinária força poetic renaissance that would be the corner­ e a inteligéncia reflectida dos homens que o stone of a new utopian project of dirigem. Viráo a cair, portanto, e a palavra Christian/Portuguese cultural imperialism. derrocada lá está a mostrar como e corn que For the ideologues of the Estado Novo, how­ apocolíptico estrondo, essas hoje pre- ever, the exploitation of the myths of the past sunçosas naçôes que arrotam de poderosas, and the messianic discourse of Sebastianism grande é o engano em que vivem, pois nao and the Fifth Empire took on two very real tardará muito o dia, fasto sobre todos nos political/material dimensions, as identified anais desta sobre todas pátria, em que os by Helena Kaufman. First, it became the homens de Estado de além-fronteiras viráo as moral justification for the existence and lusas terras pedir opiniáo, ajuda, ilustraçâo, defence of the still remaining African and máo de caridade, azeite para a candeia, aqui, Asian colonial holdings, "em nome da pro- aos fortissimos homens portugueses . . . tecfao de rayas inferiores'-um 'imperativo (Saramago 81). categorico da historia que as gerapoes pre- Specifically addressing the political and sentes e futuras devem perpetuar." Secondly, even commercial appropriation of, or it infused the regime with a global mission, appeals to, the Fifth Empire discourse and the transforming Salazar into "o Salvador da popular spiritual devotion to the Virgin of moralidade crista resumida na trindade Deus, Fátima, Reis’ thoughts, despite his pagan Patria, Familia, no Salvador da civilizapao intellectual nature, are pursued by a state­ ocidental na sua luta contra a heresia comu- ment of the exceptional religious fidelity of nista" (134). the Portuguese people: "Fiados de Deus e Saramago; via his narrator, the excep­ Nossa Senhora desde Afonso Henriques à tionally naive readings by Reis of press Grande Guerra." Though he cannot remem­ accounts and the text of his surroundings, ber whether it appeared in a newspaper, a and the tired, perhaps disillusioned com­ speech or sermon, or on an advertisement ments by Pessoa; denounces the ideological for a mysterious product called Bovril, appropriation of a reifying narration of a forma fascina-o tanto quanto o sentido, Portuguese identity and destiny. He chal­ é um dizer éloquente, estudado para mover lenges not only the Salazarist "orgulhosa- os sentimentos e afervorar os coraçôes, mente sos” doctrine of Portuguese suprema­ receita de sermáo, além de ser, por sua cy and its messianic role in a newly emerging expressáo sentenciosa, prova irrefutável de world order, but also, indirectly and with que somos um povo eleito, . . . é verdade que

LUCERO 60 chegámos atrasados á construgáo do quinto Salazar’s Estado Novo is much more complex. império, passou-nos adiante Mussolini, Although Pessoa often rhetorically attempted porém nao nos escapará o sexto, ou o sétimo, to distance himself from the overtly political; . . . Que já estamos no bom caminho é o que "Náo tenho sentimento nenhum politico ou se recolhe da declarado proferida por sua social. Tenho, porém, num sentido, um alto exceléncia o senhor presidente da República sentimento patriótico." (qtd. in Simóes 610); . . . , disse ele assim, Portugal é hoje con- he wrote extensively, if not lucidly, about his hecido em toda a parte e por isso vale a pena ever-shifting political philosophy. As Gilbert ser portugués, sentenga esta que nao fica Cavaco summarizes the poet's politics: atrás da primeira, ambas enxundiosas, que o "Fernando Pessoa was against the monarchy, apetite de universalidade nunca nos falte, the concept of democracy, communism, esta volúpia de andar ñas bocas do mundo, socialism, fascism, and Antonio Salazar" (70). depois de no mar alto termos andado . . . As discussed in Robert Brechón’s biogra­ (313)- phy, the question of Pessoa’s relationship Saramago’s (and Pessoa's) Ricardo Reis; with the Salazar regime remains a source of asthete and perpetual political spectator if controversy, ¡ngel Crespo flatly asserts that far from actor; is less than immune to the Pessoa, from the beginning, was opposed to power and draw of this rhetoric, presumably the dictatorship. According to Alfredo like the old men who spend their days look­ Margarido, Pessoa was, from the beginning, a ing longingly or, perhaps, instinctively complied supporter of the regime and only toward the sea: broke with it openly in the early months of Reis . . . reentrou no mundo exterior pela 1935: "os anos 1933-1934 sáo, pois, um perío­ porta grande da patriótica afirmagáo do sen­ do de colaboraçào com o poder" (qtd. in hor presidente. . . . [Elstavam lá os velhos a Brechón 535). Brechón himself draws a con­ ver chegar os barcos que vinham visitar a clusion from this debate favoring the position terra prometida de que tanto se falava ñas of Margarido: nagóes, e nao percebiam por que entravam . . . [S]e pode concluir que em 1932-1933 tantos, embandeirados em arco, apitando as Pessoa náo é nem um salazarista fervoroso festivas sereias, com a marinhagem alinhada nem um anti-salazarista convicto. A sua nos conveses em continéncia, . . . valeu a adesáo ao "Estado Novo" é racional, e pro­ pena esperar oitocentos anos para sentir o visoria. "Margarido parece-me resumir bem orgulho de ser portugués. Do Alto de Santa a sua posiçâo ao dizer que 'Pessoa, como tan­ Catarina oito séculos te contemplam, ó mar, tos outros portugueses, hesitou perante a os dois velhos, o magro e o gordo, enxugam Ditadura, apoiando-a, antes de começar a a lágrima furtiva, lastimosos de náo poderem duvidar, nao da ideia de Ditadura, mas dos ficar por toda a etemidade neste miradouro homens que a geriam.'" Como muitos dos a ver entrar e sair os barcos, isso é o que seus compatriotas, ele espera um salvador lhes custa, náo a curteza das vidas (314). para o País (537). * * * Saramago, to his credit, does little to clar­ Despite the obvious common groundings ify or simplify and much to further prob- of the Pessoan and Salazarist discourses jux­ lematize Pessoa's relationship with the taposed in Saramago's novel, the relationship Salazar regime. Saramago permits his Pessoa between Pessoa's politics and those of a number of direct and harsh critiques and

LUCERO 61 i ironic characterizations of the dictatorship, cumprir-se (273). including an intertextual reference to a In another extensive dialogue series of satirical, anti-salazarist poems, with Reis in the novel, Pessoa is ques­ including "Sim, é o Estado Novo", "Poema de tioned about his relationship with Amor em Estado Novo" and "Antonio Oliveira Antonio Ferro, Secretary of Pro­ Salazar" which were actually published paganda for Salazar. Pessoa de­ posthumously (Pessoa, Páginas de Pen- clares, without a hint of defensive­ samento Politico-2 81-86): ness: "Conheci, éramos amigos, vocé sabe que eu, um dia, fiz ai uns ver­ devo-lhe a ele os cinco contos de sos contra o Salazar, E ele, deu pela sátira, réis do prèmio da Mensagem, por suponho que seria sátira, Que eu saiba, náo, que é que pergunta" (324). Here Diga-me, Fernando, quem é, que é este again, Saramago cleverly draws his­ Salazar que nos calhou em sorte, ... o ditador torical detail into his narrative. portugués, o protector, o pai, o professor, o Ferro is described by Brechón as poder manso, um quarto de sacristáo, um Pessoa's close friend from 1912- quarto de sibila, um quarto de Sebastiáo, um 1916 and former director of the quarto de Sidónio, o mais apropriado possív- avant-garde literary magazine el aos nossos hábitos e índole (Saramago Orpheu, in which Pessoa had pub­ 270). lished much of his poetic output. Saramago's Pessoa-ghost, in a conversa­ Ferro was appointed in 1933 as tion with Reis, ironically critiques the Secretary of Salazarist ideological appropriation of Propaganda Portuguese religious sentiment; the troubling (a depart- political use of God and the self-styled mes­ m e n t sianic role of Salazar: which Ai esta terra, repetiu, e náo parava de rir. soon Eu a julgar que tinha ido longe de mais no after atrevimento quando na Mensagem chamei was santo a Portugal, lá está, Sáo Portugal, e vem um príncipe da Igreja, com a sua arquiepis- copal autoridade, e proclama que Portugal é Cristo, E Cristo é Portugal, náo esque9a, Sendo assim, precisamos de saber, urgen­ temente, que virgem nos pariu, que diabo nos tentou, que judas nos traiu, que pregos nos crucificaran!, qi túmulo nos esconde, que ressur reifáo nos espera, . . . nem sequer precisávamos de receber o Salazar de presente, somos nós o próprio Cristo, Vocé náo devia ter morrido táo novo, meu caro Fernando, foi urna pena, agora é que Portugal vai renamed Secretary of Information) (Brechón thought: 537). That same year he published a book of Você em vida, era menos subversivo, conversations, entitled very simply Salazar, tanto quanto me lembro, Quando se chega a in which the dictator is compared to the morto vemos a vida doutra maneira, e, com Desejado.: esta decisiva, irrespondível frase me And it would be said now that the profile despeço, irrespondível digo, porque estando of Dr. Oliveira Salazar had been lost in the você vivo nao pode responder (326). mist like the Desejado when a wave of the Despite Pessoa’s anti-Salazarist senti­ revolution, still in motion, brought him again ments and rejection of the notion of the to the Terreiro do Paço, to the Ministry of Estado Novo as the awaited Fifth Empire, cer­ Finances (qtd. in Cavaco 66). tain discernibly consistent aspects of his Pessoa, in reality as in Saramago's fiction, political philosophy closely paralleled those adamantly rejected the construction of of the dictatorship, and there are at least two Salazar’s image as a saviour or messiah ush­ gestures of active collaboration, via his rela­ ering in the awaited Fifth Empire. He is said tionship with Ferro, with the regime. First, as to have refused receipt of Ferro's book, and Ferro actively began to develop an official instead thanked him with a line of gently discourse which was to construct the spiritu­ ironic condemnation, "exprimindo a sua al dimension of the regime; a "política do 'inteira admiraçào pela firmeza sútil e a mes- Espirito", as Ferro borrowed the concept of tria publicitária' demonstradas pelo amigo” Paul Valéry; Pessoa authorized the organiza­ (Brechón 538). Saramago’s Pessoa offers a far tion of a campaign to include his poem, "Mar less gentle critique of Ferro: Portugués”, into the official school curricu­ Disse Antonio Ferro, na ocasiáo de entre­ lum (Bréchon 538). Second, as alluded to ga dos prémios, que aqueles intelectuais que above, Pessoa published Mensagem and sub­ se sentem encarcerados, nos regimes de sequently entered it into a competition força, mesmo quando essa força é mental, newly established by the Secretary of como a que dimana Salazar, esquecem-se de National Propaganda. Although Pessoa que a produçào intelectual se intensificou denied having published the book with the sempre nos regimes de ordem, Essa da força intention of entering it into the competition, mental é muito boa, os portugueses hipnoti­ he also wrote: "0 livro estava exactamente zados, os intelectuais a intensificarem a pro- nas condiçôes (nacionalismo) de concorrer. duçâo sob a vigilancia do Victor, . . . 0 Ferro Concorri” (qtd. in Simóes 653). é tonto, achou que o Salazar era o destino Ironically, Pessoa's work received a con­ portugués, 0 messias, Nem isso o pároco que solation prize, having been judged second to nos baptiza, crisma, casa e encomenda, Em an overtly anti-communist work of "ridicu­ nome da ordem, Exactamente, em nome da lous literary value” by a Franciscan friar. ordem (325-326). Joáo Gaspar Simóes asserts that Mensagem’s This outburst is followed by a very clever recognition, and an increase in the amount exchange between Reis and Pessoa, which of prize money received by Pessoa, was due relativizes Saramago’s own revisionist re­ to the intervention of Ferro, "o único . . . em presentation of Pessoa, and perhaps chal­ condiçôes de compreender o valor e o senti­ lenges any attempts at a reified understand­ do da obra de Fernando Pessoa" (654). ing of political dimensions of Pessoan To be certain, Pessoa initially held much

LUCERO 63 faith in the 1926 revolution which ushered in writes: the dictatorship and eventually brought E se é verdade que a mística patriótica Salazar and the policies of the Estado Novo to implícita no "nacionalismo" em que se funda­ power. Pessoa believed that the dictatorship menta a opiniáo pública que Fernando would be a temporary "state of transition" Pessoa considera o ponto de apoio de urna into the impending Fifth Empire. As outlined intuiçâo capaz de dar a Portugal a sua razáo by Gilbert Cavaco, Pessoa initially defended histórica tem grandes pontos de contacto the dictatorship based upon three clear com a mística "nacionalista" do "fascismo", o premises: certo é que mais de urna vez, expressamente, (1) Portugal does not have a unified polit­ o poeta . . . afirmou . . . que os regimes de ical philosophy . . . and, therefore, there can força e a política dictatorial nao eram senáo be no regime or social order [under a demo­ meios de encontrar o verdadeiro sentido de cratic republic] because latent civil war is urna sólida e sá instituiçâo nacional (629). always present; (2) there cannot be a consti­ Perhaps concerned with, or disillusioned tution, which is the definition of a regime, by, an intertwining of the thematics of his because there is no "national ideal"; and (3) own utopian/spiritual discourse with the there is no public opinion that is the basis of increasingly repressive Salazarist ideological the other two. The vote is an expression of discourse, Pessoa would later publish in 1935 the individual opinion, and even collectively a long poem, "Elegia na Sombra", which José it represents only the opinions of the elec­ Blanco describes as "urna espécie de anti- torate (65). Mensagem" (qtd. in Bréchon 557). In this Pessoa held consistent faith in the need poem, Pessoa reveals his resignation, his loss for a strong leader or an oligarchic "leader- of hope in Sebastianist redemption, a fissure plus-system" which would cut across the fac­ in his peculiar foundation of mystic patrio­ tionalisms and confusions he attributed to tism: Republic and reunite the Portuguese in the Dorme, màe Pàtria, nula e postergada, name of a clearly identified common good E, se um sonho de esperança te surgir, (which he, via his resurrection of the Nâo creías nele, porque tudo é nada, Sebastianist ideal, would help to define). As E nunca vem aquilo que há-de vir Neil Larsen and Ronald Sousa write: (qtd. in Bréchon 558). Such notions, and the rhetoric linked up with them, bespeak a situation in which ele­ It is this Pessoa, increasingly wearied, ments of the bourgeois system, weary of the cynical, and disillusioned which inhabits confusion generated by the Republic, seek Saramago's novel. It is perhaps from this national reunification, a return to normalcy Pessoa that the mantra of his politically — and justify that return in the "liberal" escapist heteronym Reis emerges: "sábio é o terms of individual fulfillment in a nation que se contenta corn o espectáculo do depicted as a spiritual entity (108). mundo, hei-de dizé-lo mil vezes, que importa What Pessoa shared with the quasi-fascist àquele a quem já nada importa que um perca ideology of the Salazar regime was the anti­ e outra vença” (Saramago 403). Throughout democratic notion of the inability of the the novel, in fact, the respective subjectivi­ "common" people to govern themselves, to ties of Pessoa and Reis are dialogically con­ make rational political decisions. As Simoes trasted as well as confused, with Reis ulti­

LUCERO 64 mately rejoining Pessoa in death. Saramago formadas, e so deixa-las sair (Saramago 367). constructs, explores and then breaks down Without necessarily pretending to speak the distinct identities of his two primary pro­ for a plurality of voices, Saramago brings to tagonists. As Maria Alzira Seixo writes: life characters, such as Lidia, whose active [S]e o intuito de devassar é inerente a presence and critical reflection effectively quase todo o propósito ficcional, ele é aqui question and relativize reified conceptions of da maior pertinência para a formulaçâo History and Identity. Lidia; a poor, single, temática desta identidade vazia que é a de Reis, working woman whose brother is ultimately confundindo-se com a da pàtria, com a do killed in a strategically futile but symbolical­ patrimònio cultural que é a do poeta . . . (49). ly powerful naval uprising against the Salazar * * * regime; offers us a more intelligent and crit­ Saramago has a profound faith, in con­ ical reading of the slide of Iberian social and trast to the Salazarist and Pessoan discours­ political life towards fascism and violence es, in the rational, critical, creative capabili­ than that of Reis: ties of the people. Thus, he consciously 0 senhor doutor e uma pessoa instruida, opens a space in his fiction for ideological eu sou quase uma analfabeta, mas uma coisa challenges to both the Salazarist and Pessoan que eu aprendi, e que as verdades sao muitas discourses from traditionally marginalized e estao umas contra as outras, enquanto nao voices. As Helen Kaufman writes: lutarem nao se sabera onde esta a mentira Sublinhando a energia criativa do povo, (388). retratando-o como força transformadora, It is this characteristic of Saramago's esse discurso romanesco confronta o con­ novel, and his literary/historiographic pro­ cedo da "irracionalidade” das massas, que ject in general, that is perhaps most attrac­ constituía o ponto de partida para os mecan­ tive to a growing number of loyal readers: ismos da demagogia fascista. 0 passado the concern for constructing a literary space desmitologizado deixa de funcionar como for the voices traditionally marginalized from urna força que paralisa ou que, por razóes de and by the dominant discourses on national grandeza e importancia mundial, concede identity and destinies. Saramago's work, direitos especiáis a urna naçào (135). rather than an embittered negation of still Saramago's faith is perhaps best embod­ prevalent orthodoxies (to be replaced, say, ied in the novel by Lidia, Reis’ chambermaid with one of his own design), is an impas­ and lover, who constantly frustrates and sur­ sioned and optimistic demand for more fluid, prises him with her articulate challenges to pluralistic and inclusive understandings of his naïve readings and re-articulations of the what it has meant, what it means, and what it official discourses: will mean to be Portuguese. And as Fica sabendo Lidia, que o povo nunca Saramago's more recent work has shifted está de um lado só, além disso, faz-me o from "national" concerns to more overtly favor de me dizer o que é o povo, 0 povo é "post-national” thematics, he offers an isto que eu sou, urna criada de servir que tern increasingly international audience more um irmáo revolucionário e se deita com um pluralistic and inclusive understandings of senhor doutor contràrio às revoluçôes, Quern what it has meant, what it means, and what it é que te ensinou a dizer essas coisas, Quando will mean to be human. abro a boca para falar, as palavras jà estâo Antonio de Oliveira Salazar rose from the

LUCERO 65 position of Finance minister; granted to him London: Associated University Press, 1997. by the military dictatorship which ended a Larsen, Neil and Ronald W. Sousa. "From Whitman (to Marinetti) to ¡lvaro de Campos: A Case Study in rather chaotic sixteen year experiment with Materialist Approaches to Literary Influence.” republicanism; to the position of Premier by Ideologies and Literature 4.17 (Sept.-Oct., 1983). 1932. Salazar, a civilian, transformed the mil­ Pessoa, Fernando. Mensagem. Lisboa: ¡tica, 1979. — . Páginas de Pensamento Político; I 1910-1919. itary dictatorship into the corporatist Estado Portugal: Publicaçôes Europa-América, 1986. Novo, whose political philosophy is perhaps — . Páginas de Pensam ento P olítico; II 1925-1939. best summed up by Salazar's own statements: Portugal: Publicaçôes Europa-América, 1986. "Portuguese nationalism is the indestructible — . Poesia Completa Edición Bilingüe, Tomo II. Barcelona: Libros Río Nuevo, 1983. bedrock of the New State. . . . We are anti­ — . Portugal, Sebastianismo e Quinto Impèrio. parliamentarians, anti-democrats, anti-liber­ Portugal: Publicaçôes Europa-América, 1986. als. . . . We are opposed to all forms of inter­ — . Textos de Intervençâo Social e Cultural: A Ficçâo nationalism, communism, socialism, syndical­ dos Heterónimos. Portugal: Publicaçôes Europa- América, 1986. ism. . . . We are against class warfare, irréli­ Rebelo, Luís de Sousa. "José Saramage: 0 Ano da gion and disloyalty to one's country. . . . To Morte de Ricardo Reis'. Coloquio Letras 85 (Nov., govern is to protect people from themselves" 1985). Robinson, R.A.H. Contemporary Portugal. London: (as cited in Robinson, 52). George Allen and Unwin, 1979. The young King Sebastian was killed (or Sapega, Ellen. "No Longer Alone and Proud: Notes on disappeared) in 1578 in a quixotic campaign the Rediscovery of the Nation in Contemporary Portuguese Fiction." After the Revolution; Twenty to forcefully conquer or christianize what is Years o f Portuguese Literature, 1974-1994. Ed. Helena now Morocco. His death (or disappearance) Kaufman and Anna Klobucks. London: Associated University Press, 1997. ushered in a period of Spanish domination of Saramago, José. 0 Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis. Portugal, lasting until 1612, and also marked Lisboa: Caminho, 1995. the beginning of a relative decline in Seixo, Maria Alzira. O Essencial de Saramago. Lisboa: Portuguese geo-political stature. Imprensa Casa da Moeda, 1987. Simòes, Joáo Gaspar. Vida e Obra de Fernando Pessoa; Historia duma geraçâo. Lisboa: Livraria Bertrand, 1980. Works Cited Arenas, Fernando. "Intertextos 'Onde o Mar Acaba’: O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis de José Saramago.’’ Lucero 1 (Spring 1990). Bréchon, Robert. Estranho Estrangeiro; Uma biografia de Fernando Pessoa. Lisboa: Quetzal Editores, 1996. Cavaco, Gilbert R. "Pessoa and Portuguese Politics.” The Man Who Never Was; Essays on Fernando Pessoa. Ed. George Monteiro. Providence, RI: Gâvea-Brown, 1982. Kaufman, Helena. ’’A Metaficçâo Historiogrâfica de José Saramago”.Coiôquio Letras 120 (June, 1991). Kaufman, Helena and Anna Klobuka. "Politics and Culture in Postrevolutionary Portugal." A fter the Revolution; Twenty Years of Portuguese Literature, 1974-1994. Ed. Helena Kaufman and Anna Klobucks.

LUCERO 66