Death, Free Will or Imposition?: A Phenomenology of the Inevitable

Abstract

The following paper analyzes the concept of death in José Saramago’s work Death with Interruptions and, at the same time, it establishes a dialogue with the philosophical tradition. The last one will provide elements to orientate the reflection on death in two directions: as a condition of human will or as a fatal ending of existence. In this regard, we should consider both the believer and the existentialist perspectives, such as the Christian and Heideggerian ones. After having analyzed those perspectives, the literary work will be considered once again in order to propose a reading of death as a phenomenology of the inevitable, in which the relation between living and dying will establish the possibility of setting out an ethical and anthropological proposal from the perspective of accepting such an existential condition.