Still Facts and Living Fictions: The Literary Work of António Lobo Antunes, An Introduction
Year: 2017
Type: article
Abstract: Antonio Lobo Antunes is undoubtedly one of the best writers in contemporary Western literature.One may be skeptical to accept this assertion at face value, but the only way to check its validity is by reading the novels and volumes of chronicles published by the author since 1979. 1 As we read on we recognize: a) a particular sensitivity to important events in contemporary Portuguese history, which are related to major changes and trends in our civilization (fascist dictatorship, colonial war, democratic revolutions, the status of women, socialist endeavors, postcolonial issues, and terrorist attacks); b) the writer's individual experience, as a participant in Portugal's war against the pro-independence movements in Africa in the 1960s and 70s, as an officer of the so-called Portuguese Empire under Salazar's government, as a militarydoctor during the war and as a practitioner in psychiatric hospitals after his return home-as a consequence of which he associates colonialism and the practice of medicine with everyday life: childhood, family, marriage, love, eroticism, friendship, loneliness, social handicaps, old age, the proximity of death, and, above all, both the zeal and the pain in the task of writing; c) a very original conception of narrative and a beautifully organized verbal rhythm, which transforms the themes and social concerns of his novels into perfect fictional poetry.As a matter of fact, while Lobo Antunes's work is shaped according to patterns of fiction, his entire oeuvre abundantly reveals an intimate cohesion
DOI: 10.62791/rs4a5527
Author: Maria Alzira Seixo
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4401019696