Influences, Translations, Settings: An Evaluation of the Literary Relations between Ireland and Italy

Abstract

The text is an attempt to draw conclusions about the literary relations between Italy and Ireland. Taking as its starting point a booklet published by the Italian Cultural Institute Dublin in 1964, the study surveys the influences of Pirandello and Dante in Ireland and analyses in detail translations of Italian poems made by Denis Devlin, Gerald Dawe, Tom Paulin, Derek Mahon, Paul Muldoon, Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Harry Clifton and Desmond O’Grady (their authors: Ungaretti, Quasimodo, Montale, Leopardi). Next, it deals with the ways Italian artistic heritage and natural beauties have been re-interpreted by Irish travelers, according special attention to Elizabeth Bowen’s work. The following sections investigate the relationship between Italian visual arts and music and Anglo-Irish Literature, exploring in particular Frank McGuinness’ Caravaggio, Tom Murphys’ The Gigli Concert and Jim Nolan’s The Salvage Shop. The final part of the essay is dedicated to the role Italian migrants play in Irish narrative.