Blindness

Originally published in Portuguese 1995, translated and published in English 1997 __ Synopsis __ An epidemic of white blindness hits an unnamed city. What begins as a mysterious unknown blindness soon appears to be contagious and when an eye doctor informs the Ministry of Health the problem escalates. The blind persons are put in quarantine and those who may have been infected by them are also sent away. The military uses an abandoned asylum to house the blind. The novel is in a sense a social experiment as it documents the reactions of individuals and society to an unknown and undesirable epidemic that causes so many to lose their sense of self and of humanity. __ Recommendation __ I would recommend this novel to avid readers. I am skeptical about the reception from high school students. Although I think they would enjoy the content, the language may be difficult and the novel is fairly long. It is a sophisticated text and may not appeal to hesitant and non-readers. __ Grade and Course __ I would teach this text to a mature, academic or applied grade 12 English course or a Writer’s Craft course. The text is dark, profound and requires a long attention span and the patience of its readers. This would also be interesting with the accompaniment of the film once the class reads the novel. __ Formal Knowledge __ This novel is written without the comforts of numbered chapters, frequent paragraphs and much punctuation, especially in indicating dialogue. Also the setting and characters remain nameless. In addition, the narrator often brings attention to itself and directly addresses the reader as a viewer of the disaster.This is important if we are to understand the novel as documenting a social experiment. It also contributes to the universality of the “blindness” and the questions it raises. Hesitant and non readers may too easily give up on the text. Some experience with more traditional prose is beneficial if the reader is to effectively analyze the text. __ Topic/Social/Cultural Knowledge __ The novel raises the questions: what is a civil society? How is it organized? What happens when disorder pervades/invades? What happens when we lose our sense of self, our way of life? The novel offers an array of responses to these questions: fear, segregation, military power, familial love and protection, despair, and determination. Looking at historical epidemics, wars and government responses to them along with memoirs of the people could be effective when teaching this novel. Students can then forge links between the text and history (First Contact in North America, Nazi Germany) and assess why the characters and place remain nameless throughout the novel. __ Challenges __ The text is very dense and may not appeal to hesitant and non readers. There are scenes of violence, rape and sex. They are not extremely graphic but do require a mature audience. Some of the commentary on the “blindness” that hits the city is troubling. It seems to suggest that the inability to see takes away one’s sense of self, of humanity. As a metaphor it works but it also ignores the reality of blindness and the people who live with dignity, humanity and identity while being blind. // “They go around like ghosts, this must be what it means to be a ghost, being certain that life exists, because your four senses say so, and yet unable to see it” (242) // // “Before, when we could still see, there were also blind people, Few in comparison, the feelings in use were those of someone who could see, therefore blind people felt with the feelings of others, not as the blind people they were, now, certainly, what is emerging are the real feelings of the blind, and we’re still only at the beginning, for the moment we still live on the memory of what we felt” (252) // It is then acknowledged that the connection between sight and feeling is up for debate. I would acknowledge the debate in the novel and investigate why the characters may respond this way and the differences between the white blindness and blindness. __ Potential Task/Assignment __ For a grade 12 academic class I would assign an essay. I would offer very general topics like structure of the novel, metafiction, character analysis, historical approach etc. but the students are to develop their own thesis, approved by the teacher. Process is a priority therefore thesis formation, evidence and research processes and drafts are formatively assessed with feedback. Assuming that those in the academic stream are for the most part university bound I would focus on strong analytic and writing skills. For a grade 12 applied class the assignment would require students write as a character and/or social/political body in the novel. They would write 3 pieces: journal/letter/email/speech/news article, one before the epidemic, one during and one after. They would then orally present one to the class. For a Writer’s Craft course I would assign a reading journal so the students track what they found difficult, confusing, powerful, exciting etc. We would then discuss the techniques used to provoke the different responses. Finally, there would be a creative writing task that requires students to abandon traditional dialogue and punctuation in prose.
 * __ Blindness – __**__ José Saramago __