Fernando Pessoa and the Russian world

Abstract

The work of Fernando Pessoa seems, at first sight, to pay scant attention to either the people or culture of the Slavic world. Moreover, when overt statements occur, they tend to be disparaging. But why should Pessoa, with his exceptional intellectual curiosity and a mindset naturally inclined towards comparisons and cosmopolitanism, consider that “of Russia it is not necessary to speak”? Some at least provisional answers to this question require a closer look at Pessoa’s genuine knowledge of and interest in the Russian world (and especially Russian literature and politics) through the examination of his poems and prose, but also through a consideration of his unrealized projects and the annotations and underlinings made in his hand in the books he possessed in his private library.

Keywords

• fernando pessoa
• chekhov, anton pavlovich
• tolstoy
• dostoyevsky, fyodor
• russian literature
• russian far east (russia)
• politics and government
• intertextuality
• influence (literary, artistic, etc.)