The editorial paratexts in “Alabardas, Alabardas, Espingardas, Espingardas”, the unfinished novel of José Saramago

Abstract

http://dx.doi.org/10.5007/2175-7917.2016v21n2p178

In 2014, four years after José Saramago’s death,his last novel arrived at the bookstores, which remained unfinished and was found in his computer. Alabardas, alabardas, Espingardas, espingardas has only three chapters. Nevertheless, the book edition also presents the Saramago’s diary, with notes referring to the novel, Günter Grass’ illustrations and texts of other writers. The novel focuse on theme of violence, war and the manufacture and the arms trade. In this article, however, we aim an analyses of the editorial paratexts of Alabardas edition. The proposal, in this sense, aims, having the paratext definition presented by Gérard Genette (2009), the investigation of a reading possibility of Alabardas not [only] as novel, but also as manifest. This possibility can be founded in the polysemic character of the editorial paratexts, which provide news perspectives for reading and interfere in the production of meanings in the text reading, as well in the conception of the editor as adapter, considering one of the adaptation concepts approached by Linda Hutcheon (2013).