This article seeks to reflect upon Fernando Pessoa and Eduardo Lourenço’s standpoint regarding provincialism. Whereas the former wrote specifically about the concept, the latter’s thoughts on this matter can mostly be extracted from essays on other topics. Despite the differences stemming from direct analysis or indirect consideration of provincialism, there is a large common ground in the way that the two writers envisage this phenomenon. Even a major dividing line between them, as is the centripetal tendency of Pessoa’s compared to Lourenço’s centrifugal inclination, does not collide with the shared perception that to both authors provincialism is a mental attitude. Based on a document from Lourenço’s archive that contains a partial transcription of a poem by Lermontov, the end of this essay tests the view of provincialism as an exercise in literary admiration.
