James Joyce's Italian Connection: The Poetics of the Word

"James Joyce's fluency in Italian and his expert handling of the language in his Triestine essays and in his own correspondence have received ample critical attention. No effort, however, has previously been made to determine how Joyce used Italian to develop his writing techniques. James Joyce's Italian Connection fills this void by showing how Italian, far from being a mere addition to Joyce's multilingual repertoire, helped him shape his unique stylistic mode. In this lucid study, Corinna Lobner shows how Joyce literally appropriated Italian to serve his purpose. He did so not only through the constant use of the spoken language but also through the attention he paid to contemporary Italian writers, among them Gabriele D'Annunzio and F.T. Marinetti. By systematically exploring the many implications of the Joyce-D'Annunzio relationship, Lobner demonstrates how D'Annunzio remained an important source of linguistic and thematic inspiration to Joyce through his career. She also closely examines the linguistic theories of Futurism, showing how Joyce carried on, developed, and ultimately satirized the reforms suggested by Marinetti"--Book jacket.