James Joyce and Trieste: places, museums and Bloom’s Day

Art & Culture

2 August 2018

Art & Culture

James Joyce and Trieste: places, museums and Bloom’s Day

A month ago, on the occasion of Bloomsday, “Writers On Writing: Joyce on the wall”, the new mural created on the perimeter wall of the Grezar Stadium in Trieste and dedicated to James Joyce was inaugurated. What is Bloom’s Day? It is a four-day festival entirely dedicated to the Irish writer and poet who lived for many years in the city. On the wall, there are three highlights of one of his masterpieces, Ulysses: the episode of the Sirens, the monologue of Molly Bloom and the Aeolus chapter, protagonist of the 2018 edition. The mural has been created by a group of street artists who have converged on the project from the Municipality’s Youth Area called Chromopolis, who were asked to pay homage to this important figure for Trieste and the Triestines. Looking for information on these festivities I wanted to investigate the link between the Irish writer and my city and I discovered many things. First of all, the fact that his sons, George and Lucia, were born in Trieste. Second: the freelance work for what was then called Il Piccolo della Sera and the passion for classical music marked by his attendance at the Teatro Verdi’s concerts. It is said among other things that the author saw eight productions of the same opera. In Trieste, “Professor Zois”, as he was called by the Triestines, lived his most prolific period as a writer: here he completed some of his most important works: Dubliners and The portrait of the artist as a young man and started Ulysses. Here he also wrote an autobiographical poem in prose, “Giacomo Joyce”, his only work deliberately set in Trieste. A Trieste that Joyce ended up considering his second homeland, so similar and so different from his hometown, of which he has given us such beautiful and well-described images. Speaking of the city, we cannot overlook a mention of his contacts with Ettore Schmitz, alias Italo Svevo. Theirs was a professional and friendly relationship of extreme importance because they met, as English teacher and student, in one of the moments of greatest disillusionment as regards their work for both of them, and yet here came also the culmination of success for both of them. If you want to know and deepen the history of Joyce and Svevo but also visit the key places in the lives of both, I recommend a visit to the Joyce and Svevo Museum in Via Madonna del Mare in Trieste. In the Museum, among other things, you can see: a map of Joyce’s Trieste (there is also a version of Svevo’s Trieste), a video explaining the author’s relationship with the city, as well as some audio/video installations concerning Joyce’s Ulysses and a very well-stocked library covering the two authors with their texts and others concerning them. It is is a visit that is fascinating both for Triestines and for those from further afield and which can arouse the simple curiosity of tourists too thanks to the presence of videos and explanatory panels in English too.

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Anna De Marco

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Almost thirty years old and Trieste-born, I have a dream of working with children with difficulties. I am curious by nature and always ready to try out new experiences, I am passionate about theatre and musicals above all. I like to look around and participate in the city’s cultural initiatives.