Pessoa is not Pessoa

Against the dominant interpretation that Pessoa is a modernist, one who is aiming at a certain self-construction, albeit a construction of the self as multiplicity, it is argued that Pessoa is a post-modernist who dissolves the notion of the self. To get a better understanding of what exactly is involved in self-construction we turn to the philosophy of Nietzsche, which highlights a certain kind of unity as essential to having a genuine self.  We then turn to interrogate the Nietzschean imperative to self-construction and, with several of Pessoa’s heteronyms in mind, question whether having a self really is a pre-condition for creativity, as Nietzsche seems to claim, or whether the imperative to self-construction is really underwritten by a commitment to the overcoming of ressentiment.