Untitled - RUN UNL - Universidade Nova de Lisboa

way or another. These assumptions are often determined by the
social constructs ruling the targeted audience of a text.
An example of narrative manipulation could be, for instance,
Diana Wynne Jones start of Howl’s Moving Castle: “In
the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and
cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be
born the eldest of three. Everyone knows you are the one who
will fail first, and worst, if the three of you set out to seek your
fortunes”. (Jones: 1996: 9)
The author, through the narrator, appeals to the know-
ledge and narrative experience of the reader with fairy-tales.
The reader should recall all those tales in which three siblings
seek their fortune and how the eldest never does well. But this
is manipulated in such a way that from the start the reader
expects the general rule they are invited to recall to be broken:
the protagonist must be the eldest of three, go out to seek their
fortune and succeed.
However, if in D.W Jones I think she explicitly appeals to
previous knowledge of fairy-tales, in Saramago’s novel I do not
think he is appealing to former knowledge of a certain genre,
or even of the historical events in question. He provides all the
historical information the reader needs in the comments and
research Raimundo does while preparing to write his version of
the siege of Lisbon. The reason for his re-creation of the siege
is never quite clear, except as a narrative device that prompts
the plot of the novel. Raimundo seems to commit the treacherous
act of altering the text he is proof-reading just for a whim.
He does not alter to replace the truth where it is not found in
the text: he found plenty of historical inaccuracies in the text.
Instead what he decides to alter is a proved fact: the crusaders
not only helped the Portuguese to besiege and conquer Lisbon,
but were essential to the victory won in 1147. Without the crusaders,
the Portuguese were outnumbered and had no hope of
victory.
Therefore the narrative manipulation in The History of the
Siege of Lisbon is not in the assumptions about historical events,
but at other levels, namely the very ability of the reader to interpret
and translate a text devoid of the usual visual signposts of
written language, such as speech markers. Note the example:
Olá, disse, ele respondeu, Olá, e os dois ficaram no cor-
redor estreito, um pouco sombrio, agora que a porta se fechou.
Raimundo Silva acendeu a luz murmurando, Desculpe,
como se tivesse adivinhado um pensamento a Maria
Sara, suspicaz e equívoco, O que tu queres é aproveitar-te
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