José Saramago and António Vieira

Two eras, two men, one style.

Abstract

This article proposes a comparative reading between José Saramago and Father António Vieira, highlighting the convergence between two authors separated in time but united by aesthetic, rhetorical, and ethical affinities. Based on Saramago's statements, in which he acknowledges the profound influence of Vieira's verbiage on his writing, they examine the multiple transtextual modalities that articulate this relationship: intertextuality, architextuality, hypertextuality, and ekphrastic echoes. Although criticism and textbooks focus mainly on linguistic aspects or on characters like Bartolomeu de Gusmão in Memorial do Convento, this study broadens the focus to less explored dimensions, highlighting structural and conceptual affinities between Vieira's parenetic rhetoric and Saramago's literary project. In both, the study observes the valorization of the performativity of the word, the conceptual play, the oscillation between light and shadow, the enunciative theatricality, and the spiral discursive construction. It is shown that Saramago conceives of language as an instrument of revelation and unsettling, akin to the sermon as an art of persuading and moving the listener. The structural orality of his prose, the rhythm marked by pauses and melodic inflections, and the sinuous phrase that advances in circles reveal a reinvented Baroque heritage. The analysis of works such as Memorial do Convento, Ensaio sobre a Cegueira, Levantado do Chão, or A Caverna reveals the persistence of the same central theme: the questioning of the human condition, the denunciation of injustices, and the affirmation of an ethical humanism. It is concluded that Saramago's production, although filtered through a secular and modern horizon, prolongs and transforms the Vieira legacy, demonstrating how certain literary dialogues remain alive and operative far beyond their time.