Intertextuality and Intratextuality in the Pessoan Epic: Mensagem

The thesis is articulated in three main chapters which try to explore how the dynamics of intertextuality is translatable, within the Pessoan oevre, also in an intratextual manner. Actually, I tried to explore progressively how the system of literary genres combines with the Pessoan introjection and subversion of literary genres and models. In the first chapter I focused on the relationships between the Sebastianist myth and the Portuguese imperialism both from a diachronic and synchronous perspective trying to pinpoint the consequences this issues acquire in a literary ambit. I took under consideration the relationship with the Camonian epic model and attempted to demonstrate that the revision of the Camoes' pattern stems from a much profounder need to revise the Lusitanian imperialistic ideal. Moreover, I have also scrutinezed the presence and the echoes of the European historical avant-gardes affecting Alvaro De Campos' Odes' epic tendencies. The second chapter is more centered on the influence of some Victorian poets upon Mensagem's texturing and which is mainly perceivable through the analysis of some Victorian devises such as the use of "persona" developped by a few Victorian poets such as Robert Browning and futher on amplified by some modernist poets such as T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound for instance and, emblematically exasperated by Pessoa in his distinguishing heteronymia. Interestingly, this feature reveals itself particularly pivotal to Mensagem's structuring as it affects the Pessoan weaving of his Luistanian modernist epic as well. In the third chapter, I took under consideration the influence of brief genres upon Mensagem, some of which are typical of Classicism, such as epitaphs, epigrams, and epitaphs on Pessoa's epic imaginary. Furthermore, in spite of the undeniable ascendancy of fragment upon the Pessoan production, the bewitchment for classicism Pessoa shows in many critical essays finds a concrete form by the poetics of Antonio Mora, Alberto Caieiro and Ricardo Reis but also offers a possible interpretative chink in Mensagem as well.