an academic trauma and a safe haven
Portuguese studies were my primary academic specialisation since my studies in Romance Philology at the Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin and my various scholarships (TEMPUS, Instituto Camoes, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation) at the University of Lisbon. I earned my PhD and habilitation with dissertations on Portuguese literature and cultural history, and the "major achievement" leading to my official full professor title in 2018 was still defined as the "thorough analysis of the literary work of José Saramago". I wrote six books and some ninety research papers, without counting language manuals, translations from Portuguese and other works related to this country and linguistic area. Nonetheless, in spite of an extensive track record, as well as various research grants and projects realised all along my academic way, it was not quite a success story, as far as Poland was concerned; I narrate my adventures in a separate text, Becoming undead: an uncanny Lusitanist adventure. There is no further need to recount those events here, although they partially explain why I practically abandoned the area in which I officially received a full professorship and have very few projects for the future related to it. Certainly, some half finished works remained, such as a book in Polish on Lusophone African literatures that might still one day came into full existence (yet certainly not in Polish language). I am still interested in the Portuguese maritime expansion in the context of global history of ideas. Overall, I often publish papers and essays on Portuguese topics, mainly because with all my accumulated experience in the area it is simply so easy to do so; it is an effect of inertia. But very few of my intellectual aspirations are connected essentially to Portugal. The centre of my academic interests switched to the Mediterranean, where I expect to find a richer history and more intellectual depth.
Obviously, as I became an excellence-level international scholar based in western Europe, the trauma of what my Polish colleagues did to me progressively waned. It is only partially the cause of my lesser interest in Lusophone matters. More importantly, I simply started to invest my time in a larger intellectual project, in which Portuguese sources appear only as glimpses, incrusted in larger, more encompassing contexts. They are there, Joao de Barros with his reflection on the pre-Babelian language that might be one day reconstructed by the efforts of the Portuguese sailors and missionaries, Antonio Vieira with his idea of the hemispheres of time open to new, even more daring navigation, Pesssoa with his English Antinous, seeing so clear what it means to be hemmed in a lesser society and culture. These are tesserae of my mosaic that I brought from Lisbon, a limes of Europe where I still return, instinctively, in the eventuality of a crisis, such as the current pandemic.
Obviously, as I became an excellence-level international scholar based in western Europe, the trauma of what my Polish colleagues did to me progressively waned. It is only partially the cause of my lesser interest in Lusophone matters. More importantly, I simply started to invest my time in a larger intellectual project, in which Portuguese sources appear only as glimpses, incrusted in larger, more encompassing contexts. They are there, Joao de Barros with his reflection on the pre-Babelian language that might be one day reconstructed by the efforts of the Portuguese sailors and missionaries, Antonio Vieira with his idea of the hemispheres of time open to new, even more daring navigation, Pesssoa with his English Antinous, seeing so clear what it means to be hemmed in a lesser society and culture. These are tesserae of my mosaic that I brought from Lisbon, a limes of Europe where I still return, instinctively, in the eventuality of a crisis, such as the current pandemic.
books
nebula pessoa
|
This book is the result of a research project supported by
Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, realised in 2016-2017. 
|
Mgławica Pessoa. Literatura portugalska od romantyzmu do współczesności [Portuguese literature from the Romanticism to the present], Wrocław, Ossolineum, 2019, 470 pp.
ISBN 978-83-66267-04-6
ISBN 978-83-66267-04-6
Summary
The book is an extensive presentation of the Portuguese literary history, going from 1826 to 2017. The content is divided into eight "lectures" and eight "interludes". While the former offer a synthetic narration involving currents and their major figures, the latter focus on some chosen aspects of the Portuguese culture, offering a personal appreciation and insight in such key matters as love, travel, translatability of the term saudade, the Portuguese relations with Europe and Africa, modernity, literary success and illustrated books.
“ |
Po cóż więc czytać to wszystko, po cóż interesować się literaturą kraju ogarniętego przeczuciem własnego kresu? Czy po to, żeby pełniej odczuć to, że sami, póki co, istniejemy? Literatura portugalska, zwłaszcza widziana w taki sposób, jak próbowałam to zrobić w tej książce, jako organiczna całość, a nie oglądana przez pryzmat dzieł indywidualnych pisarzy, dostarcza tej szczególnej mądrości, jaką Edward Said próbował zawrzeć w pojęciu „stylu późnego”. To końcowa lekcja wyczytana z długiego trwania, które w ostatecznym rachunku nie przynosi akumulacji bogactwa, lecz przeciwnie, ruinę. Zwykle liczymy na to, że tradycja kulturowa przyniesie wartościowe dziedzictwo, że mijający czas pozostawi coś po sobie, choćby książki. Historia literatury portugalskiej ukazuje coś przeciwnego: niebezpieczeństwo repetycji, kolistość paradygmatu prowadzącą do końcowego wyczerpania. Obfituje w obrazy apokalipsy, która pochłania również własną historię, w teksty, które na koniec pożerają same siebie, tak jak zrośnięci końcami palców bliźniacy, by sięgnąć raz jeszcze do powieści Peixoto, zjadający własny obraz w formie wyszukanego dania przygotowanego przez kucharkę. A na koniec trzeba jeszcze spożyć wielkie spiralne serce z najdroższej wołowiny, które okazuje się zatrute grzybami, gdyż miłość w Portugalii może się spełnić tylko tak, jak miłość Pedra i Inês, jako pocałunek złożony na dłoni trupa.
Chyba żadna z literatur europejskich nie niesie porównywalnego ładunku turpizmu i nekrofilii. Ta powtarzana w nieskończoność ostatnia lekcja goryczy mówi jednak coś istotnego o człowieczeństwie, rysującym się jako ułomne z natury, pozbawione pełni, której na próżno szukał bohater Virgília Ferreiry. Apokalipsa pochłania teksty, nie pozwala ostać się ludzkiej historii, przynosi jednak moment złamania pieczęci, ostatniego objawienia. Tą ostatnią, odkrytą na koniec prawdą okazuje się pustka, próchno, rozpad pozbawiony transcendencji. Otwierają się wrota pustyni, na którą musiał wyjść całkowicie człowieczy Jezus z powieści Saramago, by napotkać tam bezlitosne, pozbawione miłosierdzia bóstwo. W 2005 roku, pisząc książkę o tym pisarzu, Pokusę pustyni, próbowałam się cofnąć przed narzucającą się konkluzją. Wydawało mi się, że nie może przecież o to chodzić. A jednak wydane później powieści Saramago, przede wszystkim Kain, upewniły mnie co do nieuchronności najbardziej radykalnej lektury. Chodzi właśnie o ostateczną likwidację, po której nie ma nawet mowy o korzystnej wyprzedaży, na jaką liczył Kalaf Epalanga. Przekreśla to możliwość translatio imperii. Milenarystyczny projekt historii, jaki głosił niegdyś barokowy kaznodzieja António Vieira i jaki miał się zrealizować za sprawą Portugalczyków w postaci powszechnego imperium pokoju, został przekształcony w całkiem odmienną eschatologię absolutnego końca czasów, apologię pustki nastającej po ostatnim imperium, które doszło własnego kresu i wygasło bezpotomnie. Paradoksalnie jest to finałowy akord megalomanii Portugalczyków i ich przeświadczenia o własnej znikomości, spełnienie podwójnego kompleksu wyższości i niższości, tej narastającej oscylacji, dążącej jednocześnie do nieskończoności i do zera. Tym, co pozostaje, jest, jak sądzę, pochwała średniej drogi, pracowitej zaradności północnej Europy, materialnej skrzętności, na którą Portugalczycy nigdy nie zdołali się zdobyć, i miłości za życia, która zaświadcza o sobie przez codzienną troskę. |
“
Reviews of this book:
Eliasz Chmiel, ”Ewa Łukaszyk, Mgławica Pessoa. Literatura portugalska od romantyzmu do współczesności”, Estudios Hispánicos, no 28, 2021, p. 156-159.
Renata Diaz-Szmidt, „Literatury portugalskiej zmagania z pustką”, Nowe Książki, no 2, 2020.
Sabina Strózik, „Archipelagi spadających gwiazd”, ArtPapier, no 19(379)/2019.
Eliasz Chmiel, ”Ewa Łukaszyk, Mgławica Pessoa. Literatura portugalska od romantyzmu do współczesności”, Estudios Hispánicos, no 28, 2021, p. 156-159.
Renata Diaz-Szmidt, „Literatury portugalskiej zmagania z pustką”, Nowe Książki, no 2, 2020.
Sabina Strózik, „Archipelagi spadających gwiazd”, ArtPapier, no 19(379)/2019.
empire & nostalgia
|
Result of the research project DEC2012/05/B/HS2/03986 supported by
the National Science Centre, Poland 
|
Imperium i nostalgia. "Styl późny" w kulturze portugalskiej [Empire and Nostalgia. "Late style" in the Portuguese culture], Warszawa, DiG, 2015, 180 pp.
ISBN 978-83-7181-960-5
BUY THIS BOOK >>>
Price: 42 zł
TABLE OF CONTENT >>>
FRAGMENT >>>
Summary
The main conceptual framework of this book is given by my search for the definition of transcultural condition that the Portuguese never managed to achieve, in spite of their incessant search for universalism. The essays included in it form a chain of ideas recounting the Portuguese cultural history, passing through such key figures as Camões, Vieira, Pessoa and Saramago, to whom this research project has been officially dedicated.
In the Foreword, after some preliminary remarks, I give a working definition of transcultural and transcolonial, as well as situate the Portuguese case in the context of global studies. The first chapter, "Light at dusk" is dedicated to the concept of "late style" that appears in the title, as well as other ideas taken from Edward Said. I return to his evocation of Batinist and Zahirite schools in The Word, the Text and the Critic to search for an analogous dichotomy in the Portuguese literature, namely opposing Vieira and Pessoa on the one hand, and Saramago on the other.
In the second essay, "On the path of hyper-culture", I propose this neologism to grasp the premises and implications of the Portuguese idea concerning the special place of their culture as an "essence of unification", idea that appears in the vision of the "Fifth Empire" in the 17th century and is still present nowadays in the discourse of Lusophony. The main bulk of this chapter is dedicated to Vieira, as I try to confront my concept of transculture and his writings, such as História do Futuro and Clavis Prophetarum. Agamben's seminar on the Letter to Romans, as well as the whole discussion involving Paul and the origins of universalism, appear in the background. Finally, Vieira is confronted with Pessoa and what I call the "virtualization" of the Portuguese universalism.
The third chapter, "In the cycle of catastrophe" parts from the essay Shipwreck with spectator by Hans Blumenberg. The metaphor used by the German philosopher obviously invites a confrontation with the Portuguese maritime destiny. I try to go deeper than this superficial association, taking the dawn of the hyper-culture for the moment of transgression launching the European on the one-way path of progress, identified here with the fulfillment of the globalization. As Blumenberg suggests, the cyclic dynamics of the modern catastrophe, rebuilding the ships with the shipwrecked material, is caused by the incessant temptation of wholeness -- of which the early-modern vision of Vasco da Gama in The Lusiads is a premonition. Going back to the idea of crusade, I speak about the cycle of Portuguese catastrophes, situated quite close to the native shores, in Morocco. On the other hand, the longue durée of the crusade forms a cataclysmic pattern that I call the globalization of the Mediterranean.
The title of the next essay, "Conversation with a skull", is taken from Rushdie's short story included in East, West and refers to the skull of the dead jester Yorick that appears in Hamlet. Since the first moments of their presence in the New World, the Portuguese humanists, such as Pêro Vaz de Caminha and Damião de Góis, appropriate the alien voice, realizing the early-modern pattern of intercession, once again shown through the Shakespearean reference to the figure of Desdemona, causing the tragedy by her obsession of interceding in defense of a plain soldier. The stranger is silenced as the humanists speak loud in his name. The burden of hegemonic situation, of which I spoke in the chapter dedicated to Vieira, creates a longing for otherness' voice and the supposed re-creative potential of genus angelicum. Nonetheless, the eventuality of a native Yorick answering Hamlet causes a thrill that ultimately blocks any attempt at a genuine communication. On the other hand, the simile of the bottom and surface of Narcissus' spring subsumes the search for an alien mirror permitting a glance at the European condition. The chapter on Cannibals in Montaigne's Essays doesn't actually offer this insight; it is found very late, when a Portuguese colonizer discovers his own portrait in the African sculpture of Yaka.
In the next chapter, I return to the messianic imagination contributing to the imperial utopia that survives the decolonization and is to be found in the post-modern constructs of lusophony. I read both the defenders and the adversaries of the new project, seeking to understand the peculiar Portuguese understanding of the notion of spiritual empire that arguably survived unscathed the postcolonial negotiations.
Finally, the last part of the book is dedicated to the contemporary Portuguese culture, featuring Jorge de Sena, Eduardo Lourenço and Saramago. They are seen as "dispatriants" breaking through the limiting patterns of their homeland, reflected in the claustrophobic simile of an island of the leprous. Once again, they search for a new form of intellectual universalism beyond the limitations of the "insular" mentality of the Portuguese. The final remarks on Saramago are placed under the sign of the "victory of Erros". I employ the erotic-erratic concept proposed by the Polish philosopher Agata Bielik-Robson to highlight the earthly liberation achieved after the breakdown of the Portuguese hyper-cultural narration.
The book closes with a "Moral of the story", adopting an external view of the Portuguese culture and evoking its place in non-European memory. Panglima Awang, a short novel by a Malay writer Harun Aminurashid is evoked, leading to a de-centered vision of the global history.
ISBN 978-83-7181-960-5
BUY THIS BOOK >>>
Price: 42 zł
TABLE OF CONTENT >>>
FRAGMENT >>>
Summary
The main conceptual framework of this book is given by my search for the definition of transcultural condition that the Portuguese never managed to achieve, in spite of their incessant search for universalism. The essays included in it form a chain of ideas recounting the Portuguese cultural history, passing through such key figures as Camões, Vieira, Pessoa and Saramago, to whom this research project has been officially dedicated.
In the Foreword, after some preliminary remarks, I give a working definition of transcultural and transcolonial, as well as situate the Portuguese case in the context of global studies. The first chapter, "Light at dusk" is dedicated to the concept of "late style" that appears in the title, as well as other ideas taken from Edward Said. I return to his evocation of Batinist and Zahirite schools in The Word, the Text and the Critic to search for an analogous dichotomy in the Portuguese literature, namely opposing Vieira and Pessoa on the one hand, and Saramago on the other.
In the second essay, "On the path of hyper-culture", I propose this neologism to grasp the premises and implications of the Portuguese idea concerning the special place of their culture as an "essence of unification", idea that appears in the vision of the "Fifth Empire" in the 17th century and is still present nowadays in the discourse of Lusophony. The main bulk of this chapter is dedicated to Vieira, as I try to confront my concept of transculture and his writings, such as História do Futuro and Clavis Prophetarum. Agamben's seminar on the Letter to Romans, as well as the whole discussion involving Paul and the origins of universalism, appear in the background. Finally, Vieira is confronted with Pessoa and what I call the "virtualization" of the Portuguese universalism.
The third chapter, "In the cycle of catastrophe" parts from the essay Shipwreck with spectator by Hans Blumenberg. The metaphor used by the German philosopher obviously invites a confrontation with the Portuguese maritime destiny. I try to go deeper than this superficial association, taking the dawn of the hyper-culture for the moment of transgression launching the European on the one-way path of progress, identified here with the fulfillment of the globalization. As Blumenberg suggests, the cyclic dynamics of the modern catastrophe, rebuilding the ships with the shipwrecked material, is caused by the incessant temptation of wholeness -- of which the early-modern vision of Vasco da Gama in The Lusiads is a premonition. Going back to the idea of crusade, I speak about the cycle of Portuguese catastrophes, situated quite close to the native shores, in Morocco. On the other hand, the longue durée of the crusade forms a cataclysmic pattern that I call the globalization of the Mediterranean.
The title of the next essay, "Conversation with a skull", is taken from Rushdie's short story included in East, West and refers to the skull of the dead jester Yorick that appears in Hamlet. Since the first moments of their presence in the New World, the Portuguese humanists, such as Pêro Vaz de Caminha and Damião de Góis, appropriate the alien voice, realizing the early-modern pattern of intercession, once again shown through the Shakespearean reference to the figure of Desdemona, causing the tragedy by her obsession of interceding in defense of a plain soldier. The stranger is silenced as the humanists speak loud in his name. The burden of hegemonic situation, of which I spoke in the chapter dedicated to Vieira, creates a longing for otherness' voice and the supposed re-creative potential of genus angelicum. Nonetheless, the eventuality of a native Yorick answering Hamlet causes a thrill that ultimately blocks any attempt at a genuine communication. On the other hand, the simile of the bottom and surface of Narcissus' spring subsumes the search for an alien mirror permitting a glance at the European condition. The chapter on Cannibals in Montaigne's Essays doesn't actually offer this insight; it is found very late, when a Portuguese colonizer discovers his own portrait in the African sculpture of Yaka.
In the next chapter, I return to the messianic imagination contributing to the imperial utopia that survives the decolonization and is to be found in the post-modern constructs of lusophony. I read both the defenders and the adversaries of the new project, seeking to understand the peculiar Portuguese understanding of the notion of spiritual empire that arguably survived unscathed the postcolonial negotiations.
Finally, the last part of the book is dedicated to the contemporary Portuguese culture, featuring Jorge de Sena, Eduardo Lourenço and Saramago. They are seen as "dispatriants" breaking through the limiting patterns of their homeland, reflected in the claustrophobic simile of an island of the leprous. Once again, they search for a new form of intellectual universalism beyond the limitations of the "insular" mentality of the Portuguese. The final remarks on Saramago are placed under the sign of the "victory of Erros". I employ the erotic-erratic concept proposed by the Polish philosopher Agata Bielik-Robson to highlight the earthly liberation achieved after the breakdown of the Portuguese hyper-cultural narration.
The book closes with a "Moral of the story", adopting an external view of the Portuguese culture and evoking its place in non-European memory. Panglima Awang, a short novel by a Malay writer Harun Aminurashid is evoked, leading to a de-centered vision of the global history.
| imperium_i_nostalgia__przedmowa.pdf |
Review of this book (in Portuguese):
Anna Olchówka, EWA ŁUKASZYK, Imperium i nostalgia. “Styl późny” w kulturze portugalskiej, Warszawa, Wydawnictwo DIG, 2015, 175 pp., Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 24/2016, p. 198-200.
DOI 10.19195/2084-2546.24.2
Anna Olchówka, EWA ŁUKASZYK, Imperium i nostalgia. “Styl późny” w kulturze portugalskiej, Warszawa, Wydawnictwo DIG, 2015, 175 pp., Estudios Hispánicos, vol. 24/2016, p. 198-200.
DOI 10.19195/2084-2546.24.2
temptation of the desert
Pokusa pustyni. Nomadyzm jako wyjście z kryzysu współczesności w pisarstwie José Saramago [Temptation of the Desert. Nomadism as a solution for the contemporary crisis in the novelistic works of Jose Saramago], Kraków, Universitas, 2005, 360 pp.
ISBN 83-242-0563-2
ISBN e-book: ISBN 97883-242-1163-0
Summary
The aim of this book is to offer a synthetic vision of the complex theologico-anthropological and political position formulated by José Saramago in his novels, from Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia till O Homem Duplicado.
As a novelist, José Saramago gives a complex picture of the human condition in the world. It is determined by agonistic relations: on the one hand, a conflict between human beings and the tyrannical deity who strives to crush them, on the other – a feud among human beings themselves. History, therefore, appears to be a cyclical pattern of recurring tragedies and injustice.
A point of departure for the reflection is the impossibility to formulate a theodicy. The evil experienced by human beings is shown to be an outrage, a source of unassuaged horror. There is, however, a recipe for solving the dual conflict with the Other (another man or the deity): abandonment of the settled way of life, of manufacturing and accumulating material goods. Only extreme ascetism could remedy the human condition, eliminating the rivalry between the manufacturer and the Maker and disrupting the network of relations which entangle man in the historical human world. The way to avoid being enmeshed in relationship which, in Saramago’s opinion, always threatens with conflict, is nomadism: averting of the gaze, no longer meeting the gaze of the Other – either a rival human being or the jealous Eye of Providence. While looking at the Other, man sees an opponent, which gives rise to the agonistic relation. It is better, then, to view the world disinterestedly during an endless journey.
The first part of the book presents the situation of man facing the deity, tragically determined by disproportion between the heavenly power and the insignificant human world on the one hand and, on the other, by similarity between the participants of the conflict – similarity which incites God’s jealousy of human beings, for they, on their diminutive scale, may be achieving something unattainable to God in all his might. Human beings rebel and overcome their mortality, fulfilling themselves in parenthood and material, literary or musical achievement. The jealous Maker never stops trying to thwart their creative plans, to destroy the order they strive to establish, to stifle their words and their music which is not a reflection of harmony of the spheres but a revolt against the silence of God’s universe. The deity disrupts their work, uproots them, forces them on their way. The ultimate advice that can be given to the tormented human beings crushed in their struggle against the invincible enemy is to accept the necessity, to relinquish the hubris of manufacturing and to undertake the imposed journey.
The second part presents Saramago’s battle against politics and history. It appears that here too, one cannot trust promises. Neither religion nor political revolution leads to a better world. The Western world, based on individualism, is headed for collapse, since the individual identity does not provide a sufficiently stable foundation. Faith in reason is equally illusory and deceptive as faith in divine providence. Rational methods cannot prevent wrongs, and intellectual cognition not only fails to solve real problems but it also proves unable to strengthen morality or eliminate violence which is a basic modus of one human being meeting another. Democracy does not survive, either. This rational system of co-deciding is demonstrated to be a mere cover for ambitions of the most aggressive and an endorsement of the powerlessness and incapacitation of an individual in society. Voting gives only an illusion of responsibility, so the day comes when almost every voter casts an empty ballot into the box.
The nation as a system of solidarity also turns out to be a fiction aimed at concealing centuries-old inequity. Moreover, national history cannot be rectified; it is even impossible to do justice to victims of the past. Consequently, the national community is just another kind of relationship to be dissolved. A micro community, loose group of people, remains the only true form of social life. Only in such minimalist circumstances may the simplest kinds of responsibility be expected, though tentatively so, with no assurance.
History, then, is a problem to be solved. Recurring maladies cannot be remedied with historical methods, as history consists of ever returning, unchanging situations of violence. Permanent improvement can solely be attained in an messianic way, through an apocalyptic closing of history and establishment of an eternal kingdom of nomads who relinquish any rational or technological control over the world, who no longer appropriate anything nor enter relations with other people. Contrary to declarations made outside literature, therefore, the political recipe Saramago proposes is not Marxism as a strictly defined doctrine but going beyond the domain of politics.
The final part of the book elaborates on the metaphor of the desert appearing in the title. The desert is an area free from works of human hands and mind, a place of rest where the menacing deity, faced with human quietism, finds no grounds for rivalry. Thus, hell – that is, the world – becomes familiarized. Man stops fighting the lost battle against time and expanding chaos. Architecture changes into ruin, an indistinct sign. Meticulously organized archives fall apart. All archiving must be abandoned. The eye of the camera, which was supposed to serve as an extension of human sight and memory, proves to be completely useless. Human beings need to reject the instrument and undertake a journey, trying to see the world through their own eyes. They need to give up their passion for cartography and, instead of attempting to control and exploit the changing world, they need to wander without maps, accept the feeling of being lost, and rely on their instinct. Nomads are people without names, possessions or relationships with others, people without plans. They have liberated themselves from the burden of both past and future. Living in the constant now, they are free from history.
The minimalist solutions suggested by Saramago are a response to his radical assessment of Western culture. They arise from the state of utter helplessness, and it is only in such circumstances that they may be accepted. They constitute a call for betrayal, for rejection of one’s cultural heritage – a call made in hope that this radical act will give us the power to return to the auroral moment, to begin everything anew and thus to rebuild the world without its flaws. For those stuck at a dead end, the only course of action is to shift into reverse. This proposal, oscillating so dangerously between utopia and anti-utopia, between a promise and a threat, raises inevitable doubts and reservations. It is valid only in the context of powerlessness of literature, of a game without translation into reality which Saramago tries in vain to modify, searching, as the Neorealists did, for literature aimed at transforming the world. To cast literature in such an elevated role, however, means only another level of the cultural game, and the ultimate lesson to be learned from Saramago’s call for betrayal of Europe and, further, of Western culture, seems to be the affirmation of remaining faithful.
Review of this book
Agnieszka August-Zarębska, "Pokusa pustyni Ewy Łukaszyk (Kraków 2005)", Estudios hispánicos, XIV, 2006, pp. 212-215.
ISBN 83-242-0563-2
ISBN e-book: ISBN 97883-242-1163-0
Summary
The aim of this book is to offer a synthetic vision of the complex theologico-anthropological and political position formulated by José Saramago in his novels, from Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia till O Homem Duplicado.
As a novelist, José Saramago gives a complex picture of the human condition in the world. It is determined by agonistic relations: on the one hand, a conflict between human beings and the tyrannical deity who strives to crush them, on the other – a feud among human beings themselves. History, therefore, appears to be a cyclical pattern of recurring tragedies and injustice.
A point of departure for the reflection is the impossibility to formulate a theodicy. The evil experienced by human beings is shown to be an outrage, a source of unassuaged horror. There is, however, a recipe for solving the dual conflict with the Other (another man or the deity): abandonment of the settled way of life, of manufacturing and accumulating material goods. Only extreme ascetism could remedy the human condition, eliminating the rivalry between the manufacturer and the Maker and disrupting the network of relations which entangle man in the historical human world. The way to avoid being enmeshed in relationship which, in Saramago’s opinion, always threatens with conflict, is nomadism: averting of the gaze, no longer meeting the gaze of the Other – either a rival human being or the jealous Eye of Providence. While looking at the Other, man sees an opponent, which gives rise to the agonistic relation. It is better, then, to view the world disinterestedly during an endless journey.
The first part of the book presents the situation of man facing the deity, tragically determined by disproportion between the heavenly power and the insignificant human world on the one hand and, on the other, by similarity between the participants of the conflict – similarity which incites God’s jealousy of human beings, for they, on their diminutive scale, may be achieving something unattainable to God in all his might. Human beings rebel and overcome their mortality, fulfilling themselves in parenthood and material, literary or musical achievement. The jealous Maker never stops trying to thwart their creative plans, to destroy the order they strive to establish, to stifle their words and their music which is not a reflection of harmony of the spheres but a revolt against the silence of God’s universe. The deity disrupts their work, uproots them, forces them on their way. The ultimate advice that can be given to the tormented human beings crushed in their struggle against the invincible enemy is to accept the necessity, to relinquish the hubris of manufacturing and to undertake the imposed journey.
The second part presents Saramago’s battle against politics and history. It appears that here too, one cannot trust promises. Neither religion nor political revolution leads to a better world. The Western world, based on individualism, is headed for collapse, since the individual identity does not provide a sufficiently stable foundation. Faith in reason is equally illusory and deceptive as faith in divine providence. Rational methods cannot prevent wrongs, and intellectual cognition not only fails to solve real problems but it also proves unable to strengthen morality or eliminate violence which is a basic modus of one human being meeting another. Democracy does not survive, either. This rational system of co-deciding is demonstrated to be a mere cover for ambitions of the most aggressive and an endorsement of the powerlessness and incapacitation of an individual in society. Voting gives only an illusion of responsibility, so the day comes when almost every voter casts an empty ballot into the box.
The nation as a system of solidarity also turns out to be a fiction aimed at concealing centuries-old inequity. Moreover, national history cannot be rectified; it is even impossible to do justice to victims of the past. Consequently, the national community is just another kind of relationship to be dissolved. A micro community, loose group of people, remains the only true form of social life. Only in such minimalist circumstances may the simplest kinds of responsibility be expected, though tentatively so, with no assurance.
History, then, is a problem to be solved. Recurring maladies cannot be remedied with historical methods, as history consists of ever returning, unchanging situations of violence. Permanent improvement can solely be attained in an messianic way, through an apocalyptic closing of history and establishment of an eternal kingdom of nomads who relinquish any rational or technological control over the world, who no longer appropriate anything nor enter relations with other people. Contrary to declarations made outside literature, therefore, the political recipe Saramago proposes is not Marxism as a strictly defined doctrine but going beyond the domain of politics.
The final part of the book elaborates on the metaphor of the desert appearing in the title. The desert is an area free from works of human hands and mind, a place of rest where the menacing deity, faced with human quietism, finds no grounds for rivalry. Thus, hell – that is, the world – becomes familiarized. Man stops fighting the lost battle against time and expanding chaos. Architecture changes into ruin, an indistinct sign. Meticulously organized archives fall apart. All archiving must be abandoned. The eye of the camera, which was supposed to serve as an extension of human sight and memory, proves to be completely useless. Human beings need to reject the instrument and undertake a journey, trying to see the world through their own eyes. They need to give up their passion for cartography and, instead of attempting to control and exploit the changing world, they need to wander without maps, accept the feeling of being lost, and rely on their instinct. Nomads are people without names, possessions or relationships with others, people without plans. They have liberated themselves from the burden of both past and future. Living in the constant now, they are free from history.
The minimalist solutions suggested by Saramago are a response to his radical assessment of Western culture. They arise from the state of utter helplessness, and it is only in such circumstances that they may be accepted. They constitute a call for betrayal, for rejection of one’s cultural heritage – a call made in hope that this radical act will give us the power to return to the auroral moment, to begin everything anew and thus to rebuild the world without its flaws. For those stuck at a dead end, the only course of action is to shift into reverse. This proposal, oscillating so dangerously between utopia and anti-utopia, between a promise and a threat, raises inevitable doubts and reservations. It is valid only in the context of powerlessness of literature, of a game without translation into reality which Saramago tries in vain to modify, searching, as the Neorealists did, for literature aimed at transforming the world. To cast literature in such an elevated role, however, means only another level of the cultural game, and the ultimate lesson to be learned from Saramago’s call for betrayal of Europe and, further, of Western culture, seems to be the affirmation of remaining faithful.
Review of this book
Agnieszka August-Zarębska, "Pokusa pustyni Ewy Łukaszyk (Kraków 2005)", Estudios hispánicos, XIV, 2006, pp. 212-215.
the territory & the world
Terytorium a świat. Wyobrażeniowe konfiguracje przestrzeni w literaturze portugalskiej od schyłku średniowiecza do współczesności [The Territory and the World. Imaginary configurations of space in Portuguese literature since the end of the Middle Ages till the contemporary period], Kraków, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2003, 290 pp.
ISBN 83-233-1680-5
Summary
The book presents an analysis of space categories in Portuguese literature across the "imperial cycle", i.e. an extensive epoch that goes from the passage from Middle Ages to early modernity till the contemporary period. The main aim is to put in the limelight the evolution of spatial conceptualization, built up around two crucial notions: that of the "territory" and that of the "world". These two crucial concepts are in constant interaction along the Portuguese history, leading to their paradoxical identification in the concept of the "Fifth Empire" introduced by a 17th century Jesuit, António Vieira, who dreamed about a universal state unifying all humanity.
The five extensive chapters of this book show different aspects or stages in the development of the Portuguese spatial imagination. The first chapter, "Crossing the borders, seeing and reorganizing the world" starts with the teophanic root of the Portuguese identity, based on the narration of "milagre do Ourique". The maritime expansion is thus inscribed in the context of the "sacred mission" determining and justifying the existence of the nation. The legitimizing narration given by Camões in The Lusitans is one of the main points of this chapter. As a consequence, the paradigm of homo viator is conceptualized as the ideal realization of the human potential.
With the second chapter, "Unification of the world", we enter in the full blossom of the Portuguese idealistic project of the universal spiritual empire. I show the interplay of two apparently heterogeneous aspects: the vision of universalism elaborated by the humanists and the "Fifth Empire" of António Vieira. These two aspects contribute to the crystallized vision of humanity unified by the Portuguese in a new, at the same time political and mystic reality. Breaking the chronological order of the book, this chapters brings about Fernando Pessoa as the 20th century culmination of the vision of the Portuguese spiritual empire.
The beginning of the third chapter, "Unified world falling apart" takes the reader back to the early modern history, dealing with the negative aspects of the expansion. It presents the testimonies of being lost in the hostile world that make an important part of the Portuguese experience. A highlight in the presented material is given to the narrations of shipwrecks collected in História Trágico-Marítima. The analysis continues across the Portuguese literary history, culminating once again in the narrations of the African colonial war.
The last two chapters deal with modernity, marked by the destruction of the sacralised vision of the Portuguese destiny. This degradation of the consciousness of sacred mission that legitimised the very existence of the nation in earlier centuries is translated by visions of illness and degeneration of the national space, mainly in the literature created in the second half of the 19th century. What emerges during this century is the painful consciousness of contradiction between the supposed hegemonic and messianic mission in the world and the actual insignificance and poverty of the continental territory. Nonetheless, the generation of saudosistas brings back the idealised images of Portuguese homeland. Across this period, the negotiation of status between Portugal and Europe requires a new spatial category, that of periphery. Finally, the survey of the Portuguese spatial imagination culminates in Saramago's understanding of nomadism that obliterates both the hyperbolic notion of empire and the painful consciousness of periphery.
Review of this book
Teresa Jaromin, "E. Łukaszyk, Terytorium a świat...", Estudios hispánicos, XII, 2004, pp. 291-293.
ISBN 83-233-1680-5
Summary
The book presents an analysis of space categories in Portuguese literature across the "imperial cycle", i.e. an extensive epoch that goes from the passage from Middle Ages to early modernity till the contemporary period. The main aim is to put in the limelight the evolution of spatial conceptualization, built up around two crucial notions: that of the "territory" and that of the "world". These two crucial concepts are in constant interaction along the Portuguese history, leading to their paradoxical identification in the concept of the "Fifth Empire" introduced by a 17th century Jesuit, António Vieira, who dreamed about a universal state unifying all humanity.
The five extensive chapters of this book show different aspects or stages in the development of the Portuguese spatial imagination. The first chapter, "Crossing the borders, seeing and reorganizing the world" starts with the teophanic root of the Portuguese identity, based on the narration of "milagre do Ourique". The maritime expansion is thus inscribed in the context of the "sacred mission" determining and justifying the existence of the nation. The legitimizing narration given by Camões in The Lusitans is one of the main points of this chapter. As a consequence, the paradigm of homo viator is conceptualized as the ideal realization of the human potential.
With the second chapter, "Unification of the world", we enter in the full blossom of the Portuguese idealistic project of the universal spiritual empire. I show the interplay of two apparently heterogeneous aspects: the vision of universalism elaborated by the humanists and the "Fifth Empire" of António Vieira. These two aspects contribute to the crystallized vision of humanity unified by the Portuguese in a new, at the same time political and mystic reality. Breaking the chronological order of the book, this chapters brings about Fernando Pessoa as the 20th century culmination of the vision of the Portuguese spiritual empire.
The beginning of the third chapter, "Unified world falling apart" takes the reader back to the early modern history, dealing with the negative aspects of the expansion. It presents the testimonies of being lost in the hostile world that make an important part of the Portuguese experience. A highlight in the presented material is given to the narrations of shipwrecks collected in História Trágico-Marítima. The analysis continues across the Portuguese literary history, culminating once again in the narrations of the African colonial war.
The last two chapters deal with modernity, marked by the destruction of the sacralised vision of the Portuguese destiny. This degradation of the consciousness of sacred mission that legitimised the very existence of the nation in earlier centuries is translated by visions of illness and degeneration of the national space, mainly in the literature created in the second half of the 19th century. What emerges during this century is the painful consciousness of contradiction between the supposed hegemonic and messianic mission in the world and the actual insignificance and poverty of the continental territory. Nonetheless, the generation of saudosistas brings back the idealised images of Portuguese homeland. Across this period, the negotiation of status between Portugal and Europe requires a new spatial category, that of periphery. Finally, the survey of the Portuguese spatial imagination culminates in Saramago's understanding of nomadism that obliterates both the hyperbolic notion of empire and the painful consciousness of periphery.
Review of this book
Teresa Jaromin, "E. Łukaszyk, Terytorium a świat...", Estudios hispánicos, XII, 2004, pp. 291-293.
themes, problems, obsessions
Współczesna proza portugalska (1939-1999). Tematy, problemy, obsesje [Contemporary Portuguese Literature (1939-1999). Topics, problems, obsessions], Kraków, Universitas, 2000, 237 pp.
ISBN 83-7052-725-6
Summary
The book offers a comprehensive glance on Portuguese narrative literature (i.e. the history of such genres as novel and short story, as well as minor and experimental texts such as crónicas) since the neorealism till the end of the 20th century. The material is synthetically divided in three parts: "Ideas and manifestos. The age of certitudes, convictions and attitudes", "Fight against history. The age of questions without answers", and "After the Apocalypse. Tame history, entanglement in texts". The aim is to offer the reader an insight into the evolution of the main currents, ideological stances and aesthetic choices of the 20th century narrative in Portugal.
Review of this book
Agnieszka August-Zarębska, "Współczesna proza portugalska Ewy Łukaszyk (Kraków 2000)", Estudios hispánicos, X, 2002, pp. 153-155.
ISBN 83-7052-725-6
Summary
The book offers a comprehensive glance on Portuguese narrative literature (i.e. the history of such genres as novel and short story, as well as minor and experimental texts such as crónicas) since the neorealism till the end of the 20th century. The material is synthetically divided in three parts: "Ideas and manifestos. The age of certitudes, convictions and attitudes", "Fight against history. The age of questions without answers", and "After the Apocalypse. Tame history, entanglement in texts". The aim is to offer the reader an insight into the evolution of the main currents, ideological stances and aesthetic choices of the 20th century narrative in Portugal.
Review of this book
Agnieszka August-Zarębska, "Współczesna proza portugalska Ewy Łukaszyk (Kraków 2000)", Estudios hispánicos, X, 2002, pp. 153-155.
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selected papers and chapters:
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*contributions concerning earlier periods are included in the section Romance medieval & early-modern studies
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„Romantyzm krańców Europy. Portugalia, Polska i Chrystus narodów” [„Romantism on the far ends of Europe. Portugal, Poland and the Christ of nations”], Annales Universitatis Paedagogicae Cracoviensis. Studia Historicolitteraria, no 21/2021, p. 87-99. ISSN: 2081-1853 e-ISSN: 2300-5831
https://studiahistoricolitteraria.up.krakow.pl/article/view/8913/8063 The article is a tentative of providing a comparative outlook of Polish and Portuguese Romanticism. Taking for the starting point the famous parallel between the opposite ends of Europe sketched by the 19th c. historian Joachim Lelewel, the author claims that Polish and Portuguese literature, although having almost no direct contacts with each other, participated in the same system of cultural coordinates established by European Romanticism. At the same time, both nations had some sort of dispute or clash with Europe, developing syndromes of inferiority, as well as megalomaniac visions of their moral superiority. Almeida Garrett and Alexandre Herculano tried to provide a solution, harmonizing their country with its European context. The conclusion accentuates the uttermost victory of this harmonizing vision, presenting the contemporary Portuguese culture as fully Europeanized and contrasting it with the doubts concerning European identity that may be observed in the contemporary Poland.
"Intimate microspheres in Fernando Pessoa and other refugees from History: notes on topology of symbolic space and extracultural condition", Acta Iassyensia Comparationis, 25 (1)/2020 ("History / Histories").
The essay deals with the poetic creation of intimate space bubbles, as if isolated from the rest of the world reducible to a map dominated by History and the imperial mechanism as its driving force. The text in focus is Antinous by Fernando Pessoa, where such a microsphere of affect is built around an homoerotic relationship. The case of the poet living in the times of the advent of Portuguese fascism is put in the context of several East-European refugees from History striving to reconstruct their lost intimacies in the margin of the hegemonies that ousted them from their own countries (Cioran, Eliade, Miłosz). I claim that the subject constructing his intimate topology transgresses the limitations of his cultural inscription, that appears as disgracefully locatable, hemmed in History; he adopts an extracultural stance. The refugees from History, losing their language and the immediate contact with their national cultures, strive to communicate with a larger, universal dimension. In a way, such private, extracultural topologies run parallel to the imperial claim of universalism. Yet the microsphere of affect communicating with the universalist macrosphere introduces a qualitative difference, as it is built upon the authenticity of loss and longing, rather than drive for hegemony and control. "Des Lettres de la religieuse portugaise aux Nouvelles Lettres portugaises: la conquête de la solitude à l'aube de l'âge moderne et son palimpseste féministe" ["From the Letters of a Portuguese Nun to New Portuguese Letters: the conquest of solitude at the dawn of the modern age and its feminist palimpsest"], Colloquia Comparativa Litterarum, 2020. ISSN 2367-7716
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“Alberto Caeiro, czyli życie przed filozofią” [“Alberto Caeiro, or life before philosophy”], Fernando Pessoa, Poezje zebrane. Alberto Caeiro, trans. Gabriel Borowski, Kraków, Lokator, 2020. (Foreword).
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“Ricardo Reis i oksymorony awangardy” [“Ricardo Reis and the oxymoron of the avant-garde”], Fernando Pessoa, Poezje zebrane. Ricardo Reis, trans. Wojciech Charchalis, Kraków, Lokator, 2019, p. 5-19. ISBN 978-83-63056-62-9. (Foreword).
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“Od morskiego imperium do ziemi odzyskanej. Esej o 'świecie portugalskim'” [“From empire to the reconquered earth. Essay on the 'Portuguese world'”], Kultura – Historia – Globalizacja, no 21/2017, p. 149-160. ISSN 1898-7265
http://www.khg.uni.wroc.pl/files/11%20KHG_21%20Lukaszyk%20t.pdf Reprinted in volume: Historia – Kultura – Globalizacja, vol. VIII, Adam Nobis, Piotr Badyna, Piotr J. Fereński (eds.), Wrocław, Arboretum, 2018, p. 653-666. ISBN 978-83-62563-68-5 The essay comments on the evolution of the Portuguese concept of identity between its medieval and early-modern origins and the decline of the colonial empire. The concept of the “Portuguese world”, exemplified in the exposition organised in 1940, is treated as a simulacrum covering the deficiencies of the colonial project. At the same time, the vindication of the “earth” as opposed to the maritime space of the supposed “paracletic” destiny of the nation, is brought back to the Salazarian epoch with the figure of Henrique Galvão. Portugal is imagined as a garden, in which also the Other is included, as it can still be seen in the collection of "peoples of the empire" decorating the botanical garden in Belem. On the other hand, the decolonisation and the return of the settlers (shown in O Retorno by Maria Dulce Cardoso) is treated as a crucial point in which the vision of the “Portuguese world” suffered a profound reshaping. It emerges, at the beginning of the 21st century, as a community of the poor in such novels as O Apocalipse dos trabalhadores by Walter Hugo Mãe.
"Universos domésticos na narrativa portuguesa das últimas décadas do século XX: moradas imaginárias no ciclo duma cosmogonia mítica" ["Familiar universes in the Portuguese narrations during the last decades of the 20th century: imaginary homes in the cycle of mythical cosmogony"], Mitologizacje człowieka w kulturze i literaturze iberyjskiej i polskiej, Wojciech Charchalis, Bogdan Trocha (eds.), Zielona Góra, Pracownia Mitopoetyki i Filozofii Literatury – Uniwersytet Zielonogórski, 2016, p. 167-181.
“No ventre dum cavalo de Troia. Espaços da criatividade feminina na escrita de Teolinda Gersão” [“Inside the belly of a Trojan horse. Spaces of female creativity in the writings by Teolinda Gersão”], Lusorama. Zeitschrift für Lusitanistik, no 103-104, November 2015, p. 6-23. ISSN 0931-9484
Discute-se o problema dos entraves à atividade criadora da mulher, denunciados na escrita de Teolinda Gersão. Um relevo especial é dado ao romance A Cidade de Ulisses e à desconstrução do mito de Ulisses enquanto parte da herança patriarcal portuguesa. Teolinda Gersão acentua a especificidade da arte entendida pela mulher, postulando a sua inscrição no contexto existencial duma vida individual e comunitária, e recusando uma celebração póstuma do génio feminino.
"Nós, Portugal, o poder ser. Um universalismo virtual como resultado dum processo de auto-mitificação da cultura", ["We, Portugal, the possibility of being. Virtual universalism as the result of the process of cultural self-mythification"], Mitologizacja kultury w polskiej i iberyjskiej twórczości artystycznej / Mitificação de cultura na criação artística ibérica e polaca, Wojciech Charchalis, Bogdan Trocha (eds.), Zielona Góra, Pracownia Mitopoetyki i Filozofii Literatury - Uniwersytet Zielonogórski, 2015, p. 287-297. ISBN 978-83-940506-8-9
"Akt twórczy jako destabilizacja porządków w pisarstwie José Saramago" [“Creative act as a destabilization of order in the novelistic work of José Saramago”], Tematy z Szewskiej, 2(6)/2011, p. 193-198. ISSN 1898-3901
“Śmiertelność, zasiedzenie, autochtonizm. Kryptoteologia i kryptoantropologia w powieściach José Saramago” [“Mortality, sedentism, autochthonism. Crypto-theology and crypto-anthropology in the novels by José Saramago”], Anthropos?, no 16-17/2011, p. 170-178. ISSN 1730-9549
http://www.anthropos.us.edu.pl/anthropos9/texty/lukaszyk.htm “Uma lição portuguesa de multiculturalismo” [“A Portuguese lesson of multiculturalism”], Lusorama. Zeitschrift für Lusitanistik, no 79-80 (November 2009), p. 176-193. ISSN 0931-9484
„«Qui vole haut à tomber du haut se condamne». L’œuvre-blasphème dans Le Dieu manchot de José Saramago”, Images, Symboles, Mythes et Poétique de l’Ascension / Envol, études réunies et présentées par Barbara Sosień, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego, 2007, p. 203-210. ISBN 978-83-233-2368-6
“Sebastianizm. W oczekiwaniu na idealnego władcę, który przypłynie z zaklętej wyspy” [“Sebastianism. Waiting for the ideal ruler that shall return from an enchanted island”], Studia iberystyczne, no 4/2005, p. 33-48. ISBN 83-7188-758-2
“Terytorium a świat. Miejsce przestrzeni narodowej w porządku globalnym (na przykładzie portugalskim)” [“Territory and the world. Place of the national space in the global order (the Portuguese example)”], Przestrzeń w języku i kulturze. Analizy tekstów literackich i wybranych dziedzin sztuki, Jan Adamowski (ed.), Lublin, Wydawnictwo UMCS, 2005, p. 219-225. ISBN 83-227-2396-2 "Fernando Pessoa jako «nacjonalista mistyczny». Wizje narodowej tożsamości i historii w twórczości orto- i heteronimicznej" ["Fernando Pessoa as a 'mystic nationalist'. Visions of the national identity and history in the orto- and heteronym poetry"], Prace Komisji Neofilologicznej, t. V, Kraków, Polska Akademia Umiejętności, 2005, p. 123-146. ISSN 1731-8491
Fernando Pessoa “nacionalista místico”. As visões da identidade e a história nacional na obra ortónima e heterónima. O artigo apresenta a questão da génese dos heterónimos sob o ponto de vista do “nacionalismo místico” proclamado por Fernando Pessoa. Nesta perspetiva, a sua obra inscreve-se no contexto das tendências da época, tais como Renascença Portuguesa ou saudosismo, e no empenhamento do próprio autor na política do seu tempo. Por outro lado, Pessoa tenta redefinir as bases da identidade nacional para resolver a grande aporia portuguesa: a do contraste entre o passado glorioso e o presente medíocre, tendo em vista o renascimento cultural e intelectual no qual se propunha desempenhar um papel importante. O problema da identidade tem que ser entendido duma forma subtil, devido aos elementos quasi-religiosos subjacentes na sua formação (o milagre de Ourique e a consciência de missão portuguesa na história universal; o Quinto Império), que ultrapassam a dimensão puramente étnica. Os heterónimos, contrastados com a obra ortónima, funcionam como um meio da participação plurivocal de Pessoa na discussão do problema nacional, permitindo a expressão de posições ideológicas que vão da fé incondicional na realização do destino místico de Portugal na Mensagem até ao cosmopolitismo de Ricardo Reis, “patriotismo linguístico” de Bernardo Soares ou estado pré-nacional de Caeiro. Finalmente, as aporias do pensamento nacionalista conduzem às atitudes auto-irónicas de Pessoa, através das quais se deveria ler sobretudo a obra heterónima de Álvaro de Campos.
„«Przymierze z rzeczami» Sophii de Mello Breyner Andresen – między nowatorstwem a tradycją” ["'The alliance with things' in the poetry of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen. Between tradition and innovation"], Studia Iberystyczne, nr 3/2004, p. 113-126. ISBN 83-7188-540-7
„Perspektywy narratora-nomady w twórczości powieściowej José Saramago: wymiary aktu opowiadania w rzekomej «narracji odkupienia»” ["The perspectives of the nomadic narrator in the novelistic work by José Saramago: dimensions of the narrative act in the supposed 'redemption story'"], Narracja i tożsamość (II). Antropologiczne problemy literatury, pod red. Włodzimierza Boleckiego i Ryszarda Nycza, Warszawa, Wydawnictwo Instytutu Badań Literackich PAN, 2004, p. 373-386. ISSN 0084-4411; ISBN 83-89348-41-1
“Atanazy Raczyński, historiógrafo da arte portuguesa” ["Atanazy Raczynski: a historiographer of the Portuguese art"], Estudios Hispánicos, t. XI (2003), p. 77-90. ISSN 0239-6661; ISBN 83-229-2486-0
"Fatum, Parki, Salome. Kobiecość fatalna w «dramatach statycznych» Fernanda Pessoa Salomé i O Marinheiro" ["The Fate, the Fates, Salome. Fatal feminine in the 'static dramas' by Fernando Pessoa, Salomé and O Marinheiro"], Intertekstualność i wyobraźniowość, Barbara Sosień (ed.), Kraków, Universitas, 2003, p. 169-180. ISBN 83-7052-882-1
“Le jardin autour de la Grande Demeure cosmique (quelques récits portugais)” [“The Garden surrounding the cosmic Great House (several Portuguese texts)”], Imaginer le Jardin, études réunies par Barbara Sosień, Kraków, Abrys, 2003, p. 320-333. ISBN 83-85827-87-0
“«Au commencement était la route...» A actualização dos itinerários medievais nos romances de José Saramago” [“Au commencement était la route... The actualization of the medieval itineraries in the novels of José Saramago”], L’épopée médievale. Actes du XVe Congrès International de la Société Rencesvals (Poitiers, 21-27 août 2000), Gabriel Bianciotto et al. (eds), Poitiers, Centre d’Études Supérieures de Civilisation Médiévale – Université de Poitiers, 2002, vol. 1, p. 187-191. ISBN 2-9514506-6-4
"Wokół sztuki powieściowej José Saramago" ["On novelistic artism of José Saramago"], Prace Komisji Neofilologicznej, t. II, Kraków, Polska Akademia Umiejętności, 2001, p. 119-136. ISBN 83-88857-11-8
"Vai, pequeno livro, e escolhe o teu mundo... O tempo da história e o tempo da História nos prefácios aos Amantes e Outros Contos de David Mourão-Ferreira e aos Grão-Capitães de Jorge de Sena” ["'Go, little book, and choose your world...' Time of story and time of History in the introductions to Amantes e Outros Contos by David Mourão-Ferreira and Grão-Capitães by Jorge de Sena"], Romanica Cracoviensia, nr 1/2000, p. 43-47. ISBN 83-233-1357-1
“La mort de Dieu ou la naissance d’un homme nouveau? L'interrogation sur l’avenir de la culture européenne dans l’oeuvre de Vergílio Ferreira” [“The death of God or the birth of a new man? Interrogations on the future of the European culture in the writings of Vergílio Ferreira”], Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny, no 2/2000, p. 185-196. ISSN 0023-5911
„Aliança com as coisas. O mito de Orfeu em Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen” ["Union with the things. The Orphic myth in the poetry of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen"], Acta Universitatis Palackianae Olomucensis – Facultas Philosophica - Philologica 71 (1998), p. 85-92. ISBN 80-7067-809-7
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ongoing research
imperial topologies:
portuguese culture-in-the-world
research synopsis
At the dark end of all my adventures with Portuguese studies, I think once again about building a new conceptual frame for the expertise concerning the history of Portuguese culture that I have gathered. The term "hyper-culture" that I coined in my previous book, Imperium i nostalgia, might be worth further elaboration as a way in which a colonial culture tries to conceptualise itself, using Christianity and triumphant Church ideologies as a counterweight to the awareness of its own fragility.
A hyper-culture considers itself as the last bubble, the outer frame in which other cultures are supposed to exist. It is not what the Portuguese wanted to be, exactly as they thought about themselves in Christian terms. As it was defined in one of Camoes' poems, they wanted to give themselves to the world in a transforming sacrifice, reflecting the supreme paradigm of the Eucharistic offering. Hyper-cultural distortion of this ideal was related to secularisation and the general downfall of religious thinking that lost its efficiency and power in the modernity.
Such a "topological" approach to the history of Portuguese "culture-in-the world" (if the Sloterdijkian geometry of spheres is to be evoked) and the contemporary consequences of its geographic and symbolic expansion would give a novel approach to the Portuguese mythical complex, partially deconstructed by Eduardo Lourenco. Yet the conclusions that might be valid to the history of European expansion and the general theory of hegemonies might still be important and interesting. The very topological thinking, based on such categories as discontinuity, continuity, transferability, connectivity, as exemplified in the process of maritime expansion, might be developed into a more coherent language of analysis.
The imagination of spacial continuity and discontinuity may be deduced from such concepts as o cabo, a promontory, o Cabo Não the Portuguese sailors encountered on their way around the African coast. The great question to be answered at the first moment of the expansion was the problem of unlimited navigability of the maritime space, and thus continuity. The positive solution of this problem gave interesting thread of reflection, inspiring Vieira to presuppose a similar kind of continuity in time - I mean his reflection on the hemispheres of time in História do Futuro, his vision of futurology not only as an analogy, but also as an intellectual consequence to be drawn from maritime exploration.
Even more interesting, from my point of view, is the reflection on continuity and discontinuity of symbolic space. In other words, the question whether humanity is continuous, if the human nature across a variety of peoples forms a continuous axiological space that enables a transfer of values. The affirmative answer to this question, given - rather a priori than a posteriori - by the humanists brought about crucial consequences that still shape our vision of the mankind. It is only with the last writings by Vieira, on the outcome of his long personal experience as a missionary among the Indians, that the notion of discontinuity in the symbolic space, and thus intransferability of concepts and values, finds its expression in the concept of ignorantia invencibilis.
I also think about some ideas and ideals that became obsolete, such as the notion of the "Adamic language", the dream of rebuilding or recuperating a primordial form of communication, a pre-Babelian speech. We have a universal speech, which is the global English of today, just as early modernity had its Latin, yet we still didn't conceive a language of perfect correspondence between the word and the thing.
What I call topological dimension of reflection appears as a generator of utopia. Considering the world as a field of abstract potentialities may also be a functional basis of an eschatology - either such as the apocatastatic return to Paradise through the recuperation of the primordial, Adamic language or such as the millenarian vision of the perfectly just and peaceful Fifth Empire. Certainly, the Fifth Empire did not come to its fulfilment in the Portuguese world of colonies, nor in the neo-colonial project of transcontinental Lusophony. It is tempting to think we might still have it in front of us.
A hyper-culture considers itself as the last bubble, the outer frame in which other cultures are supposed to exist. It is not what the Portuguese wanted to be, exactly as they thought about themselves in Christian terms. As it was defined in one of Camoes' poems, they wanted to give themselves to the world in a transforming sacrifice, reflecting the supreme paradigm of the Eucharistic offering. Hyper-cultural distortion of this ideal was related to secularisation and the general downfall of religious thinking that lost its efficiency and power in the modernity.
Such a "topological" approach to the history of Portuguese "culture-in-the world" (if the Sloterdijkian geometry of spheres is to be evoked) and the contemporary consequences of its geographic and symbolic expansion would give a novel approach to the Portuguese mythical complex, partially deconstructed by Eduardo Lourenco. Yet the conclusions that might be valid to the history of European expansion and the general theory of hegemonies might still be important and interesting. The very topological thinking, based on such categories as discontinuity, continuity, transferability, connectivity, as exemplified in the process of maritime expansion, might be developed into a more coherent language of analysis.
The imagination of spacial continuity and discontinuity may be deduced from such concepts as o cabo, a promontory, o Cabo Não the Portuguese sailors encountered on their way around the African coast. The great question to be answered at the first moment of the expansion was the problem of unlimited navigability of the maritime space, and thus continuity. The positive solution of this problem gave interesting thread of reflection, inspiring Vieira to presuppose a similar kind of continuity in time - I mean his reflection on the hemispheres of time in História do Futuro, his vision of futurology not only as an analogy, but also as an intellectual consequence to be drawn from maritime exploration.
Even more interesting, from my point of view, is the reflection on continuity and discontinuity of symbolic space. In other words, the question whether humanity is continuous, if the human nature across a variety of peoples forms a continuous axiological space that enables a transfer of values. The affirmative answer to this question, given - rather a priori than a posteriori - by the humanists brought about crucial consequences that still shape our vision of the mankind. It is only with the last writings by Vieira, on the outcome of his long personal experience as a missionary among the Indians, that the notion of discontinuity in the symbolic space, and thus intransferability of concepts and values, finds its expression in the concept of ignorantia invencibilis.
I also think about some ideas and ideals that became obsolete, such as the notion of the "Adamic language", the dream of rebuilding or recuperating a primordial form of communication, a pre-Babelian speech. We have a universal speech, which is the global English of today, just as early modernity had its Latin, yet we still didn't conceive a language of perfect correspondence between the word and the thing.
What I call topological dimension of reflection appears as a generator of utopia. Considering the world as a field of abstract potentialities may also be a functional basis of an eschatology - either such as the apocatastatic return to Paradise through the recuperation of the primordial, Adamic language or such as the millenarian vision of the perfectly just and peaceful Fifth Empire. Certainly, the Fifth Empire did not come to its fulfilment in the Portuguese world of colonies, nor in the neo-colonial project of transcontinental Lusophony. It is tempting to think we might still have it in front of us.
Bolseira da Semana on the Gulbenkian Connect
Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (F.C.G) – How did the Gulbenkian Scholarship change my life?
Ewa A. Łukaszyk (E. Ł.) – I have been a Gulbenkian scholar twice, in 1998/1999 and 2016/2017. Both were turning points of my career in Portuguese and Lusophone studies, although in quite different ways. In 1998, I was a newly established instructor of Portuguese at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, still working for my Ph.D. dissertation on domestic universes created by such writers as Vergílio Ferreira, Carlos de Oliveira, Sophia de Mello Breyner, Lídia Jorge and Teolinda Gersão. But my Gulbenkian Scholarship helped me for more than just this. I could participate in the postgraduate programme in Comparative Literature (Mestrado em Literatura Comparada) at the University of Lisbon, which completely changed my perspective on the relationship between literature and other modalities, such as visual representation of the world in art.
F.C.G – Where am I and where am I going?
E.Ł. – For many years, I was primarily committed with my national area, trying to bring the knowledge about language, literature and history of Portugal closer to the academic and non-academic readers in Poland. I started in 1997 with a popular Portuguese grammar which, twenty years later, is still available in language bookshops. I continued with various translations, including a history of Portugal by José Hermano Saraiva. Overall, I authored five books and over sixty papers and articles on Portuguese literature and culture, most of them written in Polish. Naturally, as my career progressed, I became increasingly committed with international scholarship, as well as broader, comparative approaches aiming at theoretical innovation in cultural studies. Nonetheless, my Portuguese experience remains a crucial ingredient of any such endeavour. Just to give an example, the project on Adamic language that I developed in 2017/2018 as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow in France, while presenting a vast panorama of the search for pre-lapsarian language spoken in Paradise that preoccupied Islamic, Judaic and Christian scholars scattered across the medieval and early-modern Mediterranean world, found a culminating point in João de Barros. The Portuguese humanist believed that the words of the perfect language spoken before the fall of the tower of Babel were still remembered, although dispersed among various peoples of the world. The Portuguese maritime expansion might thus permit to bring them together, in such a way that man could speak again the language of angels. After a long stay in the Netherlands, I am back in France, working on a project “Mystical heritage and cultural transgression in the contemporary Euro-Mediterranean writing” at the CY Advanced Studies institute in Cergy (Parisian region). The title may sound both cryptic and distant from my Portuguese experience. Nonetheless, the mystical heritage that I study in the present-day Francophone novels is intimately connected with Portuguese past. Although the most famous of those mystics, such as Ibn Arabi, were connected to major urban centres located in today's Spain, they built up their spiritual adventure on the teachings of obscure, rural, often illiterate Sufi masters that had once trodden the Portuguese soil.
F.C.G – Can you tell a lesson for anyone who wants a career in your area?
E.Ł. – Till now, I have walked a long way in Portuguese studies. One may also say I have walked in circles around the Portuguese studies, perhaps at a growing distance from the centre. Yet I believe this is exactly the most important lesson for anyone who pretends to achieve academic excellence in my area. Portuguese culture is so profoundly connected to the notion of opening horizons that the most efficient way to study it is to adopt, since the very beginning, a global, comparative perspective. Treat Portugal as a key to the world.
Ewa A. Łukaszyk (E. Ł.) – I have been a Gulbenkian scholar twice, in 1998/1999 and 2016/2017. Both were turning points of my career in Portuguese and Lusophone studies, although in quite different ways. In 1998, I was a newly established instructor of Portuguese at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków, still working for my Ph.D. dissertation on domestic universes created by such writers as Vergílio Ferreira, Carlos de Oliveira, Sophia de Mello Breyner, Lídia Jorge and Teolinda Gersão. But my Gulbenkian Scholarship helped me for more than just this. I could participate in the postgraduate programme in Comparative Literature (Mestrado em Literatura Comparada) at the University of Lisbon, which completely changed my perspective on the relationship between literature and other modalities, such as visual representation of the world in art.
F.C.G – Where am I and where am I going?
E.Ł. – For many years, I was primarily committed with my national area, trying to bring the knowledge about language, literature and history of Portugal closer to the academic and non-academic readers in Poland. I started in 1997 with a popular Portuguese grammar which, twenty years later, is still available in language bookshops. I continued with various translations, including a history of Portugal by José Hermano Saraiva. Overall, I authored five books and over sixty papers and articles on Portuguese literature and culture, most of them written in Polish. Naturally, as my career progressed, I became increasingly committed with international scholarship, as well as broader, comparative approaches aiming at theoretical innovation in cultural studies. Nonetheless, my Portuguese experience remains a crucial ingredient of any such endeavour. Just to give an example, the project on Adamic language that I developed in 2017/2018 as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow in France, while presenting a vast panorama of the search for pre-lapsarian language spoken in Paradise that preoccupied Islamic, Judaic and Christian scholars scattered across the medieval and early-modern Mediterranean world, found a culminating point in João de Barros. The Portuguese humanist believed that the words of the perfect language spoken before the fall of the tower of Babel were still remembered, although dispersed among various peoples of the world. The Portuguese maritime expansion might thus permit to bring them together, in such a way that man could speak again the language of angels. After a long stay in the Netherlands, I am back in France, working on a project “Mystical heritage and cultural transgression in the contemporary Euro-Mediterranean writing” at the CY Advanced Studies institute in Cergy (Parisian region). The title may sound both cryptic and distant from my Portuguese experience. Nonetheless, the mystical heritage that I study in the present-day Francophone novels is intimately connected with Portuguese past. Although the most famous of those mystics, such as Ibn Arabi, were connected to major urban centres located in today's Spain, they built up their spiritual adventure on the teachings of obscure, rural, often illiterate Sufi masters that had once trodden the Portuguese soil.
F.C.G – Can you tell a lesson for anyone who wants a career in your area?
E.Ł. – Till now, I have walked a long way in Portuguese studies. One may also say I have walked in circles around the Portuguese studies, perhaps at a growing distance from the centre. Yet I believe this is exactly the most important lesson for anyone who pretends to achieve academic excellence in my area. Portuguese culture is so profoundly connected to the notion of opening horizons that the most efficient way to study it is to adopt, since the very beginning, a global, comparative perspective. Treat Portugal as a key to the world.
