"'They were fated to meet:' James Joyce and Giuseppe Ungaretti"

The fact that the renowned Italian writer Giuseppe Ungaretti imitated, or rather thieved some of James Joyce’s poems for one of his latest collections has been known ever since the 1980s, yet details of the relationship between the two authors have remained uncharted territory so far. This essay contextualizes the poetic theft within the wider frame of various affinities of thought between Joyce and Ungaretti, who both found inspiration in the works of Dante Alighieri and Giambattista Vico and shared common theoretical ground regarding their conception of writing and modes of language innovation.