ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Fernando Pessoa as an exemplary Nietzschean Ubermensch, as one who surpassed his own humanity not through retreat into his literary imagination but through will to power, as this notion was formulated by the German philosopher. The exuberant and dandyish Alvaro de Campos seems to have taken a few lessons from Nietzsche's exalted Dionysian man, driven by vitalistic impulses that respect no bounds, particularly those that Christian morality would impose. Pessoa's stingy recognition of the German's philosophical importance smacks a little of anxiety of influence, since his finding fault with great writers sometimes served as a cloak for what he owed them. Perhaps it is a far stretch to relate the notion of the eternal recurrence to Pessoa's writing practice, but it is at least worth mentioning that his 'procreative' activity was cyclical. Pessoa recognized and cultivated art's power to channel the artist's personality and dominate other people.
