THEDUKE

Pessoa devoted more than two decades of his life to this tragedy. The surviving manuscripts reveal a sustained and complex creative commitment, showing that the drama was not a marginal experiment but a central and long-term literary endeavour.

By reconstructing the creative process behind the drama, THEDUKE challenges the traditional view of the literary text as a fixed and finished product. Instead, it reveals how this work emerged through an intricate process of revisions, hesitations, cancellations, rewritings, and renewed attempts, a work in perpetual becoming that Pessoa was never able either to complete or to publish.

At the centre of the project is the close study of Pessoa’s manuscripts. Through additions, deletions, substitutions, marginal notes, reorganised scenes, and alternative versions of passages, the research traces the gradual formation of the play: from its earliest plans to the development of its characters, dramatic tensions, and overall structure. In this sense, the project also offers a rare opportunity to deepen our understanding of Pessoa’s creative methods, shedding light on areas of his corpus that have been generally overlooked: his dramatic production and his English works.

THEDUKE also looks beyond the manuscripts to the wider intellectual world in which the drama was conceived. By investigating Pessoa’s archive and private library, the project seeks to identify the literary sources, historical references, and theatrical models that informed the play. Particular attention is given to Pessoa’s dialogue with English literature and with the Shakespearean dramatic tradition, whose influence played a fundamental role in shaping The Duke of Parma.

THEDUKE is therefore both an act of scholarly recovery and an invitation to rediscovery. By unveiling The Duke of Parma, the project restores to view a major work that has remained hidden for decades and enriches our understanding of one of modern literature’s most fascinating authors. At the same time, it lays the foundations for a future critical edition of the tragedy, making this extraordinary text accessible to scholars, students, and readers around the world.