IL CONTRIBUTO ITALIANO ALLA COSTRUZIONE DEL MITO LETTERARIO PESSOANO

This research aims at enlarging the understanding of the value and importance of the Italian contributions which helped create the literary myth of Fernando Pessoa. This kind of research was carried out with a practical approach, in order to collect every Italian publication, in particular works by Pessoa translated into Italian, critical essays about the Portuguese poet, anthologies text book extracts, journal articles, tourist guides and intertextual operations (narrative works, movies, songs, plays…) where Fernando Pessoa’s works and personality are remediated. From a methodological point of view, it was necessary to create a database to collect and analyse the materials and therefore understand the reception of the Portuguese author in our country. The chronological boundaries were established during the works analysis and were determined from the end of the 1930s (the years of the first Italian translation of a Pessoa’s poem) to the present day. The study reveals the main Italian key to the interpretation of Pessoa’s works, while at the same time suggesting to what extent the Italian interpretations were fundamental in the construction of Pessoa’s myth. This research therefore revolves around conceptualizing how the figure of the Portuguese writer is perceived by Italian readers. And which Italian ‘filters’ returned to the reader, and in general to the Italian ‘imaginary’, the Portuguese writer.