Yeats’s Masks and Pessoa’s Heteronyms in the Light of Western Esotericism
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3986/pkn.v43.i3.07Keywords:
Irish literature, Portuguese literature, modernism, Yeats, William Butler, Pessoa, Fernando, Western esotericism, occultism, the Mask, heteronymsAbstract
The article deals with the influence of Western esotericism and occultism on the life and works of William Butler Yeats and Fernando Pessoa, particularly on their poetic technique of “creative dissociation” or “depersonalization” (which is how Pessoa described his heteronymy). This technique is the main shared characteristic of Yeats’s and Pessoa’s poetics, which is not only paradigmatically modernist but also emphatically esoteric. The term “esoteric” here refers to different currents that evolved throughout history in parallel with organized religion, on the one hand, and Enlightenment rationalism on the other, forming the so-called third pillar of Western culture. Yeats based his theory of the Mask on the ideas he developed during his years as a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, while Pessoa’s practice of spiritualism, mediumship, and automatic writing influenced his creation of heteronyms. In this regard, we can view the work of both authors as a modernist artistic expression that was formed in close contact with Western esotericism.
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