A hermetic life: Fiama Hasse Pais Brandão’s estate as a genealogy of literary writing

Abstract

The article identifies some documents, with a special emphasis on the epistolary texts, present in the literary estate of Fiama Hasse Pais Brandão, preserved by the library at Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa. Within the archive, we witness great names of the Portuguese twentieth century – such as António Ramos Rosa, Eugénio de Andrade or Luís Miguel Nava – being the first readers of works such as Área Branca (1978). The unpublished letters addressed to the authors may then illuminate some events that make their way into Fiama’s poetry and might explain her works’ context. Among this correspondence there are not only reviews or reactions of her poet friends of her latest books, but they also carry critical revisions of Poesia 61, which we shall address to highlight the fact that its authors have resignified such publication. These docu­ments evoke scenes that will frequently be part a of her future poems. The estate reveals some autobiographical components, particularly in her correspondence exchanges, which this article sought to link with some passages or stanzas from the author’s poems.