Raul Leal

Raul Leal
Raul Leal
Born
Raul d'Oliveira Sousa Leal

(1886-09-01)1 September 1886
Lisbon, Portugal
Died18 August 1964(1964-08-18) (aged 77)
Lisbon, Portugal
OccupationsPoet, writer, occultist
Writing career
Pen nameHenoch
Notable workSodoma Divinizada
Movements
Modernism, futurism

Raul d'Oliveira Sousa Leal (pseudonym: Henoch; 1 September 1886 – 18 August 1964) was a Portuguese writer, poet, and occultist. A figure associated with modernism and futurism, he was also one of the contributors to the Portuguese avant-garde literary magazine Orpheu. He is best known for his controversial work Sodoma Divinizada.

Biography

Raul Leal graduated in law from the University of Coimbra in 1909. In 1915, he went into exile in Spain due to political reasons.

Autobiographical note

In my parents' house, I received a most luxurious education, becoming well-acquainted with all the splendours and refinements; it was therefore natural that I should want to maintain that lifestyle—even if it meant stooping to the greatest ignominies—especially since my ambitions for luxury were always intense, and my desires and greed unrestrained. Yet I crushed all that within me, because only in shame could such desires be fulfilled, and I refused in any way to shatter my dignity—always intact, always immaculate. Despite everything, I chose misery and hunger!

— Raul Leal, Sodoma Divinizada (1989), p. 109

Leal was among the first to introduce futurism to Portuguese literature. In 1915, he published the "vertiginous novella" Atelier in the second issue of Orpheu, intended as part of an unpublished collection titled Devaneios e Alucinações ("Reveries and Hallucinations"). Uniquely in Portuguese literature, he wrote all his poetic work in French. In 1923, he planned to write a "metaphysical drama" titled O Incompreendido ("The Misunderstood").

He contributed widely to various modernist publications:

Life of Sacrifice

During four horrible years of hunger and poverty, I never let myself fall into degradation. Despite my suffering, I always found the inner strength to work on my Work. So many times, frozen and barely able to stand from sheer hunger, I climbed the grand staircase of the Madrid Library—scarcely heated in winter—to seek in metaphysical study a vague forgetting of my pain, giving higher meaning to my existence.

— Raul Leal, Sodoma Divinizada (1989), pp. 108–109

Sodoma Divinizada and Controversy

In 1923, Leal published Sodoma Divinizada with the Olisipo publishing house, managed by Fernando Pessoa. The book became central to the literary scandal later known as the "Literature of Sodom", which also involved António Botto’s poetry book Canções (second edition, 1922).

The controversy was sparked by Pessoa's article António Botto e o Ideal Estético em Portugal in the magazine Contemporânea (No. 3, July 1922). The ensuing public debate involved several figures, including journalist Álvaro Maia and junior politician Pedro Teotónio Pereira.

In March 1923, the civil governor of Lisbon ordered the **seizure and public burning** of Canções, Sodoma Divinizada, and Decadência by Judite Teixeira. In response, Leal published the pamphlet Uma Lição de Moral aos Estudantes de Lisboa e o Descaramento da Igreja Católica ("A Moral Lesson for the Students of Lisbon and the Impudence of the Catholic Church").

Works

Selected publications

Posthumous Editions

See also

References

  1. ↑ Leal, Raul. Sodoma Divinizada. Hiena, 1989, p. 111.