Portugal: should Saramago still be required reading?
A proposed change to the curriculum has sparked controversy in Portugal. The country's only Nobel laureate, José Saramago, may lose compulsory reading status in secondary schools. Saramago, who was an avowed communist until his death in 2010, left the country in the 1990s following a row with the Conservatives. Against this backdrop, the proposal by the Conservatives, who are now in power again, has fuelled a heated debate.
Antidote to ignorance
Poet and professor João Paulo Santos offers some advice in Visão:
“This is not about idolising José Saramago, it's about recognising that removing literary cornerstones from the curriculum at a time of such superficiality is an unwitting gift to ignorance. And contrary to what one might think, ignorance does not develop from one day to the next; it develops slowly, imperceptibly, until it becomes the norm. We do not have to canonise the Portuguese Nobel laureate. But it might be wise to keep him as firm point of reference in a country that desperately needs texts that make people think. Schools are not the enemy of freedom – but nor should they be complicit in the spread of disinformation.”
Let the teachers decide
Filmmaker Tiago Roma Almeida agrees that teachers should have more say and addresses critics of the proposed changes in Observador:
“José Saramago is without a doubt one of Portugal's greatest writers. ... But to claim that the author is now being persecuted again is ludicrous. [Minister of Education] Fernando Alexandre simply proposed that José Saramago should not be a compulsory part of the curriculum. You could sum up his suggestion as follows: Those who want to teach the work of the Nobel laureate should teach it; those who don't shouldn't have to. Live and let live. Try it out, it might do you good! ... You find any excuse to criticise when there's no left-wing party in government.”
Don't push inconvenient writers into the shadows
Carlos Reis, professor emeritus at the University of Coimbra, fears in Público that the conservatives will try to silence a critical voice:
“Let's begin gently by pushing an inconvenient writer into the shadows in the name of free choice; the darkness will follow later. And perhaps, in this way, it will all blow over. ... What we do with José Saramago is neither harmless nor without consequences for the future. What we do with him, as with others, reflects our ideas about literature and how much we value its transformative power.”