ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on texts set within Portugal's capital city, Lisbon, in order to allow for an in-depth examination of men's experience in a limited area but over a broad timeframe. They include: Livro do Desassossego by Fernando Pessoa in the heteronymic guise of Bernardo Soares; Um Homem nao Chora by Luis de Sttau Monteiro, and Historia do Cerco de Lisboa by Jose Saramago. Through its multi-layered narrative, Historia, like Livro and Homem, reveals a man's interactions with and reflections on the city and its social and gendered structure. If the city is not just a backdrop or setting, but is an 'active constituent of historical consciousness', of identities and experience, then the experience of being in Lisbon is central to formations and constructions of specific gendered identities. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
