António Sérgio: a dissident in constant search of meaning

Abstract

In António Sérgio’s thought, individual memory apparently occupies an insignificant place. In the context of such a varied work everything seems to obey to a unitary and rationalist ideal of intimate coherence, an impulse for citizenship and expectation of a better future. Which is understandable if we consider the intentionality of progress, the libertarian mark and the thirst for absolute that runs through his ideology. However, forgotten autobiographical passages – way of observing and confronting himself with his intimate secret – reveals a complex self-portrait in which the need to self-justify the call for action becomes evident alongside a dimension that has long been denied: the romantic and mystical mark of a dissident. Dissident from the political and intellectual elites of his time, from a mentality dominated by the material dimension of life and the superstition of power.