678 Fernando Pessoa (with Bartholomew Ryan) | My Last Book with Robin Waterfield

The History of Literature

Jacke Wilson

History, Books, Arts

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jacke's been trying to come to grips with Portuguese modernist poet Fernando Pessoa ever since Harold Bloom named him one of the 26 most influential writers in the entire Western canon. But it's not easy! As a young man, Pessoa wanted to be, in his words, "plural like the universe," and he carried this out in his poetry: writing verse in the style of more than one hundred fictional alter-egos that he called heteronyms. In this episode, Pessoa expert Bartholomew Ryan, author of Fernando Pessoa: A Critical Life, joins Jacke for a discussion of Pessoa's profound, endlessly innovative ideas. PLUS renowned scholar Robin Waterfield (Aesop's Fables: A New Translation) joins Jacke for a discussion of the last book he will ever read. Additional listening: 643 Aesop and His Fables (with Robin Waterfield) 398 Fernando Pessoa 138 Why Poetry (with Matthew Zapruder) The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at gabrielruizbernal.com. Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/donate. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The History of Literature Podcast is a member of the Podglomerate Network and Lit Hub Radio.
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0:54.3	Hello, as a young man, the Portuguese modernist Fernando Pessoa
0:58.5	aspired to, quote, be plural like the universe.
1:02.4	End quote.
1:03.7	How did he do it?
1:05.2	Well, he invented over 100 fictional alter egos,
1:09.5	which he called heteronyms and got them to work, writing poetry.
1:14.1	We'll ask his biographer Bartholomew Ryan to help us make sense of one of the 20th century's
1:19.7	greatest and most baffling poets.
	...

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