TRAVELING THROUGH TIME AND SPACE: SARAMAGO, CERVANTES AND THE CHIVALRIC TRADITION

Abstract

This article traces José Saramago’s mobilization of the Cervantes’ Don Quijote (1605) in A Jangada de Pedra (1986), an act that, at first glance, seems to invoke a shared Iberian literary heritage. I argue, however, that in fact Saramago problematizes any notion of being that is necessarily connected to territory. I trace Saramago’s mobilization of Spanish literary patrimony, arguing that Saramago effectively dissolves all sense of borders, homeland and nation, eschews modernity and positions his novel in a European context, not simply a Portuguese or Iberian one. Through the lens of cosmopolitanism, I argue that Saramago questions ideas of home, of truth, and of knowledge, rewriting the medieval chivalric in the form of a modern-day travel narrative.

Keywords

• Don Quijote
• A Jangada de Pedra
• Cosmopolitanism
• Comparative Literature
• Iberian identity