These 70 writers are actually all the same person – Ilan Stavans



Get to know the life of enigmatic poet and writer Fernando Pessoa, who wrote not as himself but as other people he invented.

On November 30th, 1935, dozens of writers passed away. They came from different backgrounds, espoused divergent beliefs, and wrote in a variety of styles. Yet almost 30,000 pages of their work was stashed in a trunk in an apartment in Lisbon, Portugal. So, what mysterious string tied all these writers together? Ilan Stavans explores the enigmatic life of Fernando Pessoa and his many identities.

Lesson by Ilan Stavans, directed by Héloïse Dorsan-Rachet.

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29 thoughts on “These 70 writers are actually all the same person – Ilan Stavans”

  1. I'm studying biochemistry in uni, but in high school when we were studying him that was one of my favorite parts of Portuguese cause you'd read a bit and know which heterónimo (idk in english) it was by the way he wrote

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  2. This guy seems alot like me, for example when someone hurt me violently in my paracosm (go educate yourself and google what a paracosm is) I was depressed for the rest of the day. The differents is that this guy pretends his characters are real and makes them real by being them. Unlike me and my gorgous furrys. (edit) the animation in this vid is outstanding!

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  3. I remember in AP Lit, we had to do a massive project based on a poet of our choice and I chose Fernando Pessoa because I wanted to get closer to my heritage. Wished this video was posted earlier though… 😔

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  4. This came out right around the time I found out about Pessoa and started reading his Book of Disquiet. I first read his long Poem Antinous on the Gutenberg website and fell in love. The fact he also knew and spoke of my other favorite poet, Constantine Cavafy, gives me goosebumps. I found out about him after the pandemic and his poetry really changed my life. The timing couldn't be more perfect ❤ Thanks TED for a wonderful video!

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  5. The same thing occurs to me; I have many OCs, and I write numerous poems, histories, and other texts through these OCs. Each OC has a name, personality, appearance, and autobiography totally divergent from one another, and sometimes these OCs converse with each other and with me too. Like Pessoa, I don't have control over them. ~ Vinicius

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