Identity and individualism in José Saramago and Denis Villeneuve

Abstract

In what concerns realism as an aspect of the novel, in The rise of the novel Ian Watt associates it with the presence of recognisable individualities as part of the readers world. Such connection demonstrates how appealing individual identity is in modern context, that in which novel was developed. In spite of that central role – or perhaps due to it – the obsessive quest for indisputable identity, that can be pointed out as a distinctive feature of modern societies, has favoured the rise of unsetling perspectives and situations involving the relation self/alterity. In this article I will investigate the way José Saramago and Denis Villeneuve deal with such important question in The double and Enemy.