LITERATURE AND GLOBAL UNDERSTANDING

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF UNIVERSAL STORY, BY AFONSO CRUZ

Abstract

In 2009, Afonso Cruz (Figueira da Foz, 1971) published a remarkable book titled Enciclopédia da Estória Universal (Encyclopedia of Universal Story), which received the Grand Prize of Count Camilo Castelo Branco (Portuguese Association of Writers). This work began a series to which the author has already added four volumes, subtitled Collection of Alexandria (2012), The Dresner Files (2013), Sea (2014) and The Reincarnations of Pythagoras (2015). The title, through the word “story,” immediately announces the special character of this “encyclopedia,” which eludes any single definition of genre. Comments, citations, parodies, puzzles, tales, parables, thoughts, aphorisms, proverbs and poems are some of the textual types that appear in these volumes in the form of entries, organized alphabetically, whose authorship is attributed to persons real or invented. As we shall see in this article, this Encyclopedia perfectly fulfills the prerequisites of important international scientific organizations such as the International Council for Science (ISCU), the International Council for Social Sciences (ISSC) and the International Council for Philosophy and Sciences (CIPSH), which declared 2016 the “International Year of Global Understanding”2 (IYGU).