L’espace ou le personnage caché dans la Consolation aux tribulations d’Israël de Samuel Usque
Résumé
The article aims to present a new approaching on Samuel Usque’s work Consolation for the Tribulations of Israelas a spatial teleology, instead of a historical teleology. This masterpiece of the Portuguese literature was thought as a historical or messianic text concerning the traumatic experience of the expulsion of Jews from the Iberian Peninsula. The author uses three figures of temporality – history, memory and consolation –, clearly inscribing the narrative in time. The spatiality, which is decisive for a developing Diaspora, is not identified. The spatiality, which is decisive for a developing Diaspora, is not identified. However, it is the core of Consolation, as well as its framework (references to continents, human consolations, travel reports). The exile is returned and it becomes a theodicy. The places of exile (in Italy or Turkey) are blessings. Samuel Usque was a literate merchant. The judeoconversos’ spatial networks he had experienced permeates and it is reflected in his work, giving it unity.