The year of the katabasis of Ricardo Reis. An homerian topoi in José Saramago’s novel
Keywords:
, José Saramago, Ricardo Reis, Classical themes, Katabasis, Homer.Copyright (c) 2019 Luís Ricardo Duarte
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Abstract
In José Saramago's work there are frequent allusions to Classical themes, arising from his thorough knowledge of the ancient works, but also influenced by the "popular repertoire" Saramago liked so much. However, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis is more than a mere quote. The reader will witness a conscious or unconscious reworking of one of the most famous Greek topoi, the Homerian Katabasis, a descent into Hell. In 1936 Lisbon, Ricardo Reis, like Ulysses, discovers the "truth".
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