Art / Resistance.‘Italy’ in Torga’s and Saramago’s writings

Abstract

Miguel Torga and José Saramago, both writers not only travelled to Italy in different historical moments, the first in 1937–38 and the latter in 1972, but they also wrote about ‘Italy’ after these experiences. In Torga’s case, O Quarto Dia (1939; reed. 1971) –being a part of Criação do Mundo–, in Saramago’s case, some short essays (1972) and five autobiographical exercises which the painter H. writes in Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia (1977). Based on the hypothesis of a productive reception by Saramago, this study makes a comparative analysis that focuses on the ambivalent image of ‘Italy’ (homeland of Art and ‘cradle’ of Fascism). This analysis tries to define an evolution of thought about Art and the artist’s role in the face of political oppression and the persecution of the human being as a carrier of thought and creation that defies the structures of power. Instead of artistic praxis focusing on sublimation and being functionalized for the display of power, it must assume a role within the scope of resistance and awakening to an individual and collective emancipating political conscience.This evolution involves the redefinition of aesthetics, triggered by the contemplation of works of Art in Italy that enter in dialogue with observations and reflections. Hence, the respective texts of Torga and Saramago achieve a poetological dimension that will be analysed in a comparative way.