Analysis Of Power Themes In José Saramago’s "Blindness" And "Seeing"

José Saramago,a famous writer in the history of Portuguese literature in the 20 th century,is the only writer in the Portuguese-speaking world to have won the Nobel Prize in Literature so far.His works have rich imagination,grotesque and absurd plots,profound thematic meanings and strong allegorical colors,behind the text lurks the author’s various thoughts on the current living situation of human beings,the future and fate,the problems of human nature,uses a sharp and bizarre but warm brushstroke to expose and satirize these issues,giving people a wake-up call.This paper takes Saramago’s current translation into the novels of“Blindness”and “Seeing” as the object of analysis,and uses the relevant power theory to explore the power relations and individual identity construction problems in the two works.Whether it is traditional political power or modern disciplinary power,it cannot escape the key words of power control and oppression.In modern society,power relations form an overall mode of operation that combines macro power and micro power.The micro-power theory of the postmodern thinker Foucault analyzes in greater detail the more subtle manifestations of the control and manipulation of modern power.This paper uses both the traditional macro-political power theory and Foucault’s modern micro-power theory to analyze and interpret the power relations in the two works.The analysis of the paper is mainly composed of three parts: the suppression of power,the resistance of power,and the construction of the identity of the subject under the modern power relationship.The suppression of power mainly analyzes the suppression and control of people by modern power from three aspects: the ruling oppression of the power class,the physical punishment under the suppression of power,and the spiritual slavery under the modern power relationship.There is both the direct brutality of violent rule and the microscopic discipline of modern power.Modern power is precisely through suppression and discipline to manipulate and interfere with people’s body and spirit,forming the tameness of the body and the identity of the spirit,showing that modern people are involuntary and ignorant under the suppression and discipline of power.However,wherever power arises,it is accompanied by a revolt of power.Under the suppression and discipline of power,people resist the authority of violent rule and order in the ruling authority,the taming of physical and sexual violence in physical punishment,and the rebellion against spiritual discipline mainly through the care for others and the awakening of self-consciousness to combat the identity of discipline power.Under the suppression and discipline of power,the image of "people" is missing and incomplete,whether it is the blind group in "Blindness" or ordinary citizens and government officials in "Seeing",their images are vague and uncertain.Nevertheless,the author of Saramago also gives us great hope,he portrayed the doctor’s wife and the inspector,two characters full of reason and morality.Under the modern power relationship,only by seeking the construction of self-identity can we rediscover our self-subjectivity,and through the practice of the free liberation of our own body and soul,we can restore ourselves and reinvent ourselves.