Portuguese literature

Under Provençal influence, medieval Portuguese literature produced popular ballads and troubadour songs.

The Renaissance provided a stimulus for the outstanding work of the dramatist Gil Vicente and of the lyric and epic poet Camoëns. In the 17th and 18th centuries there was a decline towards mere formality, but the Letters of a Portuguese Nun, attributed to Marianna Alcoforado (1640–1723), were a poignant exception and found echoes in the modern revolutionary period. The outstanding writer of the 20th century was the poet Fernando Pessoa. There is a lively tradition of writing in Brazil, and Angola has developed its own school of Portuguese-African poetry.