A (re)construção do heterônimo pessoano em O ano da morte de Ricardo Reis, de José Saramago

Abstract

The year of Ricardo Reis' death was published by José Saramago for the first time in 1984; the story, however, takes place in 1936, one year after Fernando Pessoa's death. This was a troubled period for Portugal, which faced a military dictatorship, with a nazi-fascist character, commanded by António de Oliveira Salazar. As in his previous titles, in this novel, Saramago thematizes the history and social problems of Portugal, which then gain new nuances under the singular contemplation of Ricardo Reis. Permeated with verses from the heteronym, the protagonist's identity is constructed based on information from this previous “life”, which led us to the following questions: is this the same persona? What are the processes that constitute the fictional life of Saramago’s character? What reading protocols does the novel establish? Our study takes as theoretical principles the notion of character survival (REIS, 2013) and transtextuality/intertextuality (GENETTE, 2005), and dialogues with some critics who have also read this novel by José Saramago. Our main objectives are to recognize, amidst the tangled discourse of the narrative, the verses of Pessoa's heteronym, and to understand the function they play in the composition of Reis Saramaguiano in dialogue with other figurative processes.