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The Unveiling of Fernando Pessoa’s Literary Legacy: The Duke of Parma

Project description

Studying Pessoa’s lost Shakespearean drama

Fernando Pessoa is best known as a poet, but he also wrote The Duke of Parma, an unpublished five-act drama written in 16th-century English. With the support of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the THEDUKE project will reconstruct the play’s compositional process and textual variants by decoding the original manuscripts using palaeographic methods and AI-powered handwriting recognition software. To trace the drama’s development and external literary influences, the project will examine Pessoa’s private library and archive. The results, including manuscript images, transcriptions and critical insights, will be hosted on an open-access digital platform. The THEDUKE project is expected to transform perceptions of Pessoa’s literary output, modernist literature and the history of 20th-century European theatre.

Objective

This proposal aims to study the genesis of the unpublished drama The Duke of Parma, a Shakespearean-inspired five-act play written in 16th-century English by one of the most renowned authors of the XX century: Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935). By interpreting the creative process behind the composition of the drama, THEDUKE will challenge the established idea of a literary text as a static product and will bring to the public’s attention the last hidden gem in Fernando Pessoa’s archive. Using palaeographic techniques, together with the help of an AI-powered tool for Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR), a material analysis of the manuscripts will be performed to determine their textual context and identify the textual variants. A further investigation of the author's archive and private library will be conducted to analyze the influences of external literary sources on the drama's genesis. To reach its objectives, THEDUKE requires an interdisciplinary approach and draws on the collective knowledge of Portuguese Literature, English Literature, History of Theatre, and Textual Criticism. The results of THEDUKE will be hosted on an open digital database, which will display images of the manuscripts, provide transcriptions, and offer insight into the compositional process. This project will hold substantial implications for Lusophone Literature, Modernist Literature, and the History of Theatre since it will shed light on a fundamental piece of Pessoa’s dramatic piece, and it will generate new critical perspectives in the realm of European literature. At UNIPR, I will collaborate with experts in Renaissance English Literature and Digital Humanities to combine my specialized knowledge of the genesis of Pessoa's work with theirs to ensure the project's success. My prior research experience, along with the new competencies I will acquire will allow me to become a recognized specialist in Pessoa's work and bolster my position as an expert researcher in Portuguese Literature and Text

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Topic(s)

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Funding Scheme

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HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships

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Call for proposal

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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2024-PF-01

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Coordinator

UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PARMA
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 193 643,28
Address
VIA UNIVERSITA 12
43121 PARMA
Italy

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Region
Nord-Est Emilia-Romagna Parma
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
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Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

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