Joyce on National Deliverance. The View from 1907 Trieste

Abstract

In 1907 in Trieste, Joyce accepted Roberto Prezioso’s invitation to write a series of articles about the evil of empires as found in Ireland for "Il Piccolo della Sera". He must have felt pleased to be guaranteed front page exposure in the midst of an important election campaign being fought on issues of Irrendentism and Socialism. Attilio Tamaro asked Joyce to give three public lectures about Irish matters at the Università Popolare, possibly with the aim of getting the author back on his feet after his disappointing stay in Rome. In "Ulysses", Joyce would later hold up to scrutiny the use of history as a device to trigger a reaction in the present: he was reminiscent of Italo Svevo, forgotten in Trieste because he was not Italian enough to be useful to the Irredentist cultural propaganda of the town.