Lisbon Revisited

Twentieth-century Portugal saw dramatic political and social change. The monarchy was abolished, and a republic installed (1910), soon giving way to a long-lasting dictatorship (1926); a transition to democracy (1974) led to membership of the European Union (1986). But what do we know of how people lived during these periods? And how did men, in particular, respond to the changes taking place in society? In this illuminating and broad-ranging study, Rhian Atkin uses as case studies the work of Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935), Luis de Sttau Monteiro (1926-93) and Jose Saramago (1922-2010) in order to examine the relationship between socio-political change and the construction and performance of masculinities in the urban environment of Lisbon over the course of the last century.

An important new reading of Portugal's greatest poet.

Fernando Pessoa and the Lyric: Disquietude, Rumination, Interruption, Inspiration, Constellation is an in-depth exploration of Pessoa’s major innovations in lyric writing and thinking. This book is an original contribution to comparative literature and poetic theory that puts Pessoa side by side with several other poets. It delves into Pessoa’s poetic theory, with an emphasis on Livro do desassossego and the heteronymic drama, and discovers new approaches to reading and appreciating the lyric. Such Pessoan literary concepts as disquietude, rumination, interruption, inspiration, and constellation are carefully examined in relation to a number of different poets, yielding unprecedented results in comparative poetics.

This bilingual and illustrated edition offers to all English-speaking readers interested in poetry, and in the cultural legacy of Lisbon, verses written by great poets who were born or lived in Portugal's legendary capital city. The globally celebrated Luís de Camões and Fernando Pessoa, along with the latter's heteronyms, are joined by three other poets widely praised within the Portuguese-speaking world—Cesário Verde, Mário de Sá-Carneiro, and Florbela Espanca—, whom we have the pleasure of introducing to you.

This encyclopaedia will be an indispensable resource and recourse for all who are thinking about cities and the urban, and the relation of cities to literature, and to ways of writing about cities. Covering a vast terrain, this work will include entries on theorists, individual writers, individual cities, countries, cities in relation to the arts, film and music, urban space, pre/early and modern cities, concepts and movements and definitions amongst others. Written by an international team of contributors, this will be the first resource of its kind to pull together such a comprehensive overview of the field.

Fernando Pessoa is one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. Until some years ago known in the English-speaking world only among a minority of connaisseurs, his work is finally becoming available in English translations, and more are in the process of reaching the literary public. Born in Lisbon in 1888, Pessoa was only forty-seven when he died, but he left behind a staggering number of unpublished manuscripts that are still being screened and brought to light. George Steiner heralded the day Pessoa discovered his major Portuguese heteronyms, for no country had ever seen the birth of four great poets in a single day. That was a reference to the personae Pessoa created, the famous heteronyms Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos, and Ricardo Reis, besides the man himself -- all poets in their own right with their biographies and even critical exchanges among themselves. Today well over a hundred Pessoa heteronyms are known, including, notably, the semi-heteronym Bernardo Soares, author of The Book of Disquiet, presently available in two English translations. Lately, another Pessoa is emerging -- an English writer, as well as a thinker. Indeed, having been educated in Durban, South Africa, where his stepfather was the consul of Portugal, the poet had a strong English education that shaped his life and thought. George Monteiro has been in the forefront of the uncovering of this side of Pessoa. Author, among many other works, of The Presence of Pessoa: English, American, and Southern African Literary Responses, and Fernando Pessoa and Nineteenth-Century Anglo-American Literature, in this volume Monteiro continues to explore and interpret the world of Pessoa to English-speaking readers.

For a more encompassing and stimulating picture of Modernism seen as a movement of the 20th century, a broad spectrum of work across many countries we must explore its diversity. Portuguese Modernism manifested itself both in visual art and in literature, and made a vigorous contribution to this time of profound cultural change. Indeed, the sociocultural transformations that marked the early 20th century in Portugal are still current. This volume provides a critical guide for students and teachers, contributed by an array of scholars with unparalleled knowledge of the period, its artists and its writers. Steffen Dix is Research Fellow at the Institute of Social Science, University of Lisbon; Jeronimo Pizarro is Research Fellow at the Linguistics Centre, University of Lisbon.

Writing a biography about Pessoa is a seemingly impossible task. The great Portuguese poet did not have just one life, but his existence virtually exploded in over a hundred different personalities. Only by placing oneself close to Pessoa, only by becoming almost one with him, is it possible to trace the life of this poet who was himself a multitude. José Paulo Cavalcanti has done such a thing, sewing together a path that runs through Pessoa’s multiple voices and personalities, seamlessly moving in and out of the poet’s work, daily habits and interactions. Following the great success of the Brazilian edition, Fernando Pessoa. A quasi Memoir is the first English translation of the book, and it provides new insights on the complex nature of the Portuguese poet.