Secularization and religious experience in the fiction of José Saramago

• Grant number: 14/14514-9
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): July 01, 2015
• Effective date (End): June 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Literature - Other Vernacular Literatures
• Principal researcher: Marcos Aparecido Lopes
• Grantee: Ana Maria Ferreira Côrtes
• Home Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present research aims to analyze the novels Memorial do Convento (1982; Memoirs of the Convent) and O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo (1991; The Gospel according to Jesus Christ), written by Portuguese author José Saramago, in view of the process of secularization of the Western world. Initially, the concept of secularization will be discussed, in the different meanings it acquired over time, as well as its historical origin and the supposed consensus that we live in a secular age. The research will also investigate how the two novels interpret the process of secularization. Furthermore, it wil seek to verify whether and to what extent the concept in question can be understood, in the works of Saramago, a way of approach, instead of rupture, in relation to the religious experience of the Christian tradition, according to the proposals of Gianni Vattimo (1998). With this, we will discuss, on a preliminary basis, the presence and evolution of the concept of secularization in the work of the Portuguese novelist.