Joaquim Pessoa emerged in the 1970's during the final years of Portugal's Salazar dictatorship. Over the past thirty years, has been the source of study for his socio-political views. In the early stages of his career, Pessoa applied a deconstructionist approach to his writing in the face of censorship under the Salazar regime. Robert Simon argues that this was the first of three stages of a progressive evolution of Pessoa's work, citing Pessoa's deconstructionist stance as only a starting point for a longer, metaphysical journey that would lead the author to explore his own conceptions of society and love, eventually leading him towards mystical enlightenment.