Fernando Pessoa haunted by Camoens

Abstract

This paper presents a documentary approach to the complex relationship between Fernando Pessoa and Luís de Camões, examining the paradoxical presence of Camões as a literary influence – simultaneously admired and denied – in Pessoa’s work. The analysis ranges from the poet’s personal library to manuscripts and publications that address Camões either directly or indirectly. The central argument is that Camões functions in Pessoa’s oeuvre as a spectral figure, at times evoked with reverence, at others subjected to sharp critique. By mapping this absent presence, the paper proposes that Camões not only precedes Pessoa as the foundational poet of Portuguese literature but also haunts him as a myth to be surpassed, rewritten, and ultimately internalized within the multiplicity of the Pessoan project.