The Faust myth has been, since its first literary treatments, a representation of what knowledge of limits lies in the desire for knowledge and the attempt to overcome them, in which each step is a false step displacing the initial unknown. It is also the discovery of not-knowing that accompanies all knowledge (scientific, technological and philosophical). It represents, moreover, thought as a game, committed to life which is also played out. In this sense, when trying to write a Faust in the 20th century and following the path already taken by Browning, Pessoa initiated a new modernist genre, that of the dramatic poem, and the line followed by others in the same era (from Valéry to Thomas Mann), to present a “new” Faust.
The dramatic poem that Pessoa mulled over and left unfinished was, in its reformulation of romantic themes, a challenge he could not fully meet, could not conclude. Nonetheless, the work, even in its unfinished state, has opened paths for literature, namely for literature in Portuguese, giving it new properties that are, we believe, traceable from an observation point that is ours, today.
Dealing with the aspects under study had to be carried out on several fronts, from their origin to their ramifications. It was, therefore, a question of situating Pessoa’s Fausto and its themes in 20th century European modernity, in particular within the framework of the first two or three decades, as well as, according to a somewhat different but complementary orientation, to demonstrate that this long unfinished poem continues to produce its effects on more recent literature, whether in prose or verse. This is especially so if we think that the relationship we are interested in clarifying is the one that arises from a common tendency towards inquiry presupposed in the philosophical poem, in a broadest sense.
In Portuguese literature, the influence of Pessoa’s text can be detected in works by authors such as Jorge de Sena, who first noticed the Pessoa “effect” we are trying to describe here. In recent decades, writers such as Fiama Hasse Pais Brandão, Nuno Júdice, Manuel António Pina, Manuel Gusmão, Maria Gabriela Llansol, António Franco Alexandre, R. Lino, António Vieira and Gonçalo M. Tavares, among others, have seemed to respond to the same type of question raised by Pessoa’s Fausto.
O Fausto de Pessoa e outros
Date: 5th November 2020
Times: 10.15 am to 5 pm
Organisation: Patrícia Soares Martins, Fernando Guerreiro and Golgona Anghel
Supported by CLEPUL/FLUL, CET/FLUL, IELT/FCSH-UNL
Zoom: https://videoconf-colibri.zoom.us/j/85285698334?pwd=OTJoZ1VGQlJvaEc5M3I5NTJTY1Judz09
Password to access – 754553
