Abstract

When José Saramago received the Nobel Prize, there was no unanimity among the critics. Some considered Antonio Lobo Antunes a superior writer, and his name had in fact circulated in connection with the Nobel. Portugal is too small and too lightweight politically to reasonably expect two Nobel awards in one generation. This geopolitical limitation, wherever it exists, engenders similar dichotomies. Fortunately, the canon’s ongoing readjustment makes the omission from an award, even the Nobel, of no consequence for an author’s posterity. The history of contemporary literature is stock-full of authors who were never distinguished by the Swedish Academy, while the annals of the Nobel teem with names that no longer command the esteem they once did.