Pessoa's Geometry of the Abyss
Modernity and the Book of Disquiet

Paulo de Medeiros

Cover of Pessoa's Geometry of the Abyss

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Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 2

Legenda

4 December 2013  •  142pp

ISBN: 978-1-909662-07-0 (hardback)  •  RRP £80, $110, €95

ISBN: 978-1-315089-84-3 (Taylor & Francis ebook)

ModernPortugueseFiction

Fernando Pessoa wrote prolifically in many genres until his untimely death in 1935, and he has long been widely recognized as Portugal's most influential twentieth century writer. The publication of the Book of Disquiet in 1982, however, caused a seismic change in the appreciation of his work and its place in Modernism. In that great and vast collection of fragments, Pessoa firmly established his place among the canon of European modernists and radically questioned many of Modernity's assumptions. Alain Badiou, for example, has argued that philosophers are not yet able to assimilate Pessoa's thinking.

Paulo de Medeiros's new study, one of the first to be dedicated to the Book of Disquiet, takes up that challenge, exploring the text's connections with photography, film, politics and textuality itself, and developing comparisons with D. H. Lawrence, Walter Benjamin, and Franz Kafka.

Paulo de Medeiros is Professor of Modern and Contemporary World Literatures in the Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies at the University of Warwick.

Reviews:

  • ‘This dense book, full of creative suggestions and a thorough knowledge of the modern background, places Pessoa and the Book of Disquiet center stage in its probing and questioning of the meaning of modernity in one of its most complex and compelling avatars.’ — K. David Jackson, Luso-Brazilian Review 52.2, 2015, 196-98

Bibliography entry:

Medeiros, Paulo de, Pessoa's Geometry of the Abyss: Modernity and the Book of Disquiet, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures, 2 (Legenda, 2013)

First footnote reference: 35 Paulo de Medeiros, Pessoa's Geometry of the Abyss: Modernity and the Book of Disquiet, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures, 2 (Legenda, 2013), p. 21.

Subsequent footnote reference: 37 Medeiros, p. 47.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

Bibliography entry:

Medeiros, Paulo de. 2013. Pessoa's Geometry of the Abyss: Modernity and the Book of Disquiet, Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures, 2 (Legenda)

Example citation: ‘A quotation occurring on page 21 of this work’ (Medeiros 2013: 21).

Example footnote reference: 35 Medeiros 2013: 21.

(To see how these citations were worked out, follow this link.)

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