Abstract
The chapter analyzes how Saramago, in The Gospel According to Jesus Christ, shows Jesus’ utmost strengths through his representation of the women who strongly affect his life. It also argues that the attention given to the eroticized body of the women, in the novel, opposes the dualist view of the body-soul—which occurs in the fascist discourse of the Salazarean Portugal—and suggests a satirical tone toward Christian exegesis of the Canonical Gospels. As all the women, including Mary, his mother, and Mary Magdalene stand before the evidence that there is no godly salvation, they represent a redeemed view of women, whose lives play a fundamental role in the reinvention of the evangelical characters and in the total human experience of Christ.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
“Like the first woman in this trinity, she [Mary Magdalene] lets her long tresses hang loose down her back” (GJC 3).
- 2.
A fact that agrees with the Protoevangelium of James. Cf. Foster 2008, p. 120.
- 3.
“No one knows who spoke those words, God could not have spoken them, for they are not beads from His rosary, Pastor could well have uttered them, except he is far away, so perhaps they were the words of the song the woman sang” (GJC 226).
- 4.
“Her parents, Joachim and Anna, who were very old and couldn’t conceive—unless through divine intervention—receive an announcement from angels that they’d have a child” (Foster 2008, p. 116).
- 5.
The document is dated to about the mid-fourth century, although some scholars agree that the composition of the original text was probably much earlier than that (cf. Foster 2008, p. 70).
- 6.
“The stages [of soteriological rituals] involve rebirth, anointing, redemption and the bridal chamber…. Having undergone this process, the reconstituted being must no longer be involved with physical sexual practices. In a broken passage, it appears that those who undergo this ritual are seen as being divinized in some sense, and consequently are known as sons of the bridal chamber (76.3–5)” (Foster 2008, p. 74).
- 7.
Cf. Paul C. Burns’ “Introduction” (2007, p. 1).
Works Cited
Arnaut, Ana Paula. 1996. Memorial do Convento: história, ficção e ideologia. Coimbra: Fora do Texto.
Augustine of Hippo. 1982. The Literal Meaning of Genesis. 2 vols. Trans. John Hammond Taylor. New York: Newman Press.
Baltrusch, Burghard. 2012. Mito Feminino e Imagologia Masculina: A Representação da Mulher em Memorial do Convento de José Saramago. Luso-Brazilian Review 49 (2): 207–231.
Blamires, Alcuin, ed. 1992. Woman Defamed and Woman Defended: An Anthology of Medieval Texts. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bloom, Harold. 2001. The One with the Beard Is God, the Other Is the Devil. In Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies 6, Special Issue On Saramago, ed. Anna Klobucka, pp. 155–66.
Burns, Paul C., ed. 2007. Jesus in the Twentieth Century Literature, Art, and Movies. New York: Continuum.
Bynum, Caroline Walker. 1992. And Woman His Humanity: Female Imagery in the Religious Writing of the Later Middle Ages. In Fragmentation and Redemption: Essays on Gender and the Human Body in Medieval Religion, 151–179. New York: Zone Books.
Coogan, Michael D., Marc Z. Brettler, Carol A. Newsom, and Pheme Perkins, eds. 2010. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha. New Revised Standard Version. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Finke, Laurie. 1992. The Grotesque Mystical Body: Representing the Woman Writer. In Feminist Theory, Women’s Writing, 75–107. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Foster, Paul, ed. 2008. The Non-Canonical Gospels. London: T & T Clark.
Oliveira, Yani Rebouças de. 2009. As Imagens Femininas Da Tradição Cristã No Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo, De José Saramago. Anais do SILEL 1. http://www.ileel.ufu.br/anaisdosilel/pt/arquivos/gt_lt06_artigo_6.pdf. Accessed 1 Nov 2017.
Ornelas, José. 2002. The Fascist Body in Contemporary Portuguese Narrative. Luso-Brazilian Review 39 (2): 65–77.
Rodrigues, Murilo. 2003. A Relação entre o Corpo e o Poder em Michael Foucault. Psicologia em Revista 9 (13): 109–124.
Segal, Alan F. 2007. Christology in the Dark. In Jesus in the Twentieth Century Literature, Art, and Movies, ed. Paul C. Burns, 211–222. New York: Continuum.
Silva, Janaína. 2011. Da Imagem ao Romance: Dürer e a Cena Trágica no Evangelho de Saramago. Ciências Humana e Sociais em Revista Seropédica 33 (2): 66–75.
Taubeneck, Steven. 2007. The Existential Turn. In Jesus in the Twentieth Century Literature, Art, and Movies, ed. Paul C. Burns, 109–126. Continuum: New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Santiago, C.C. (2018). Female Representations in José Saramago: A Space for Oppositional Discourses from the Canonical Gospels to The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. In: Salzani, C., Vanhoutte, K. (eds) Saramago’s Philosophical Heritage. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91923-2_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91923-2_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-91922-5
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-91923-2
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)