Eduardo Lourenço: mystery and criticism, under the spell of writing

Abstract

This article discusses Eduardo Lourenço’s essay writing, considering it a turning point in Portuguese and European essay writing. Starting from Eduardo Lourenço’s critical reservations regarding the Portuguese Philosophy movement, we reflect on his Metaphysical reflection unfolded on two levels: the physical materiality of his discourse as criticism and metacriticism; and its object, embodied in a constant reflection on Time or temporality. We will therefore consider how the poetic-philosophical dimension of Eduardo Lourenço’s thought is rooted, ontologically, in a meta-criticism that is, in the limit, an anti-theory of literature, insofar as this is required by the objects themselves or by poetic texts.