Chaos and creation in Fernando Pessoa

Abstract

Fernando Pessoa's poem "A Múmia" describes a sort of psychotic experience, which shows the condition of the literary creation by itself. The poem springs from – and describes – the experience of psychic and existential chaos: criticism and clinic overlap in the making and analysis of "A Múmia" This critical reading aims at bringing some intelligibility to the creative processes and, in particular, to Pessoa's heteronyms.