32 Fictions July 2003

FERNANDO PESSOA/THOMAS MANN: ANTÓNIO MORA-FERNANDO PESSOA
AND THE SANATORIAL FICTION OF «CULTURAL MEDICAL DOCTOR?
(From The Magical Mountain to «A Casa de Saude de Cascaes» or vice-versa)

Luis Filipe B. Teixeira
Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias

Portuguese

The research made on Fernando Pessoa’s espolio, that has led, among other books, to the critical edition of «António Mora’s Works», that we have recently published, (Lisbon, Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 2002), has demonstrated that the interstitial thread of Pessoa’s heteronimical fiction still contains some essential but widely unknown features. With this essay we intend, in a plain account, not only to draw the attention to that fundamental figure of Pessoa’s neopagan thought but, simultaneously, starting from the sanatorial genesis of his portrait of the «Cultural Medical Doctor» (Dr. António Mora has his figurative epiphany on the short story «In Cascais’ Health House»), to establish the fictional relations with another author and text, also sanatorial and coetaneous: respectively, Thomas Mann and The Magical Mountain. With this article we harvest the theme of fiction, central to this issue of RCL.