On The Fable Of Saramago’s Blindness And Seeing

Jose Saramago is, whose works includes poem, play, editorial, short stories, novels and some other genres, is the only one Nobel Prize winner in the Portuguese world. That he is keenly sensitive of participating in the social issues manifests in his novels. That he writes in works of his thinking of the human civilization, of his considering and concerning of the future of humankind, of his cling and yarning for the humanity influence the public. In this paper, with two examples of his fable novel Blindness and political novel Seeing, the artistic tricks, social value, implication of thought, implication of criticism, modernism and the spatial structure of his novel will be explored. It can be expected that this research following will bring a fresh thinking into the Portuguese study of novel and put forth a new perspective.The cognitive way of blindness is spatial, which is keenly articulated in literature. Spatial rationality runs through the process from language to character. It is a model that is not only in the logic, but also in the expression of words of the novel. Echoed the pre-texts in the ancient Greek mythologies and Bible Stories, the blindness in the novel is not only a metaphor for the lack of spatial reason, but also a way of pursuing a cognitive approach, the blindness itself will give the blind a space of rational cognition, and it is high cognition of spatial rationality which expresses in the works as the second language.As a kind of illness, blindness not only refers to the loss of visual cognitive ability of the medical sense, it also contains metaphorical and symbolic color. Firstly, physically blindness refers to spiritual blindness. The phrase "Can see but do not see" means that there is something invisible to the naked eye which should see. It is different from the real symptoms of blindness that it is a punishment both mental and physical. Secondly, the process from blindness to seeing is not only to way that the blind drags out an ignoble existence and compromises with the fall of human nature, but also of pursuing the rational cognition and moral conscience. That the blind relies on auditory and tactile to recognize each other and life indicates that blindness is a way of cognition, a way of finding rational cognition. Thirdly, the metaphor "blindness and seeing" is embodied in the novel’s space relationship. We lived in the prison both physical and mental which is structured complex and invisible, in which the dignity of mind, beliefs, conscience are all fuzzy, instead, there are the blind and moral collapse there. Temporary body blindness is curable, but soul blindness’s cure cannot be achieved overnight. The author consciously creates this spirit of physical barriers "help" the blind fall into uncomfortable, to "help" the blind restore order and reconstruct rationality that causes the aesthetic subject’s amazing and thinking about this kind of blindness.That there are no breakpoint statements, no addressed Cities, nameless characters, the uncertainty of space and time means that Saramago writes not only the Portuguese, but also the fate of the whole human society. To this awful world, Saramago proposed his own ideas, hopes after blindness and seeing disaster, human beings can correct life.