This paper intends to demonstrate that certain practices undertaken in Literary Studies are illegal. The examples given are those of two hypothetical occurrences which, if they were to take place, would make literary analysis over Fernando Pessoa's letter regarding the birth of the heteronyms a legal impossibility. The first of these occurrences has to do with the legal possibility that Pessoa's heirs have of revoking the authorization for publication of the aforementioned letter whenever they so wish. The second occurrence is based on the fact that the paragraph about the occult is confidential, due to the fact that Pessoa explicitly requested that it be not published coupled with the circumstance that this piece of text is related to a part of Pessoa's private life, i.e. a supernatural belief. For these reasons, the publication of this paragraph is illegal, even if Pessoa's heirs have authorized it; consequently, literary criticism that deals with this paragraph is also illegal, as it contributes, at least indirectly, to divulge the paragraph's content. Thus, if this illegality were to be acknowledged through judicial decision, extant copies available to the public of both the paragraph and literary criticism that used it would have to be removed from circulation.
