for half a century, leo bersani's texts have inspired, resisted, guided, and challenged work in the fields of literary criticism, literary theory, queer theory, cultural studies, psychoanalytic theory, and film and visual studies. concluding with an interview with bersani, this is the first book-length introduction to bersani's oeuvre.

leo bersani: living theory chronologically follows the development of bersani's thought from his engagement in the 1960s and 1970s with french and american modernist fiction and his early articulations of poststructuralist theory (derrida, deleuze, foucault, blanchot), before moving to his work on psychoanalysis and to his groundbreaking formulations of what would become queer theory in the 1990s. the final chapter proposes a dialogue between bersanian ethics/aesthetics and the recent emergence of disability theory.

this book investigates the spaces of interaction between portuguese and brazilian modernists--specifically oswald de andrade, augusto de campos and haroldo de campos, ronald de carvalho, ant nio ferro, fernando pessoa, m rio de s -carneiro--and their interpretation of nation. most importantly, the way in which their work echoes and transfigures the ulysses myth, to be termed portuguese ulyssism by brazilian gilberto freyre in his reading of lu's vaz de cam es's epic poem the lusiads, is analyzed, underlining the presence of a postcolonial ulysses in the lusophone world. the trope of the shipwreck is central to the creative production of these atlantic modernists who, outside of their respective national literatures, interact beyond the territories of nation-states through texts on exile, national identity, and colonialism.

in addition to the renowned the lusiads, the texts studied include two issues of the luso-brazilian quarterly orpheu (1915) and ant nio ferro's contributions to brazil's klaxon (1922, in celebration of the centenary of brazil's political independence from portugal); oswald de andrade's anthropophagic manifesto (1928) and an unpublished letter to ferro; fernando pessoa's poem "ulysses" in message (1934); and haroldo de campos's galaxies (1984) and "finismundo: the last voyage" (1997). in a postcolonial ulysses in the lusophone world, relocations and transfigurations of the ulysses myth inform a dialogue between the modernists of portugal and brazil through texts on exile, national identity, and colonialism.