Dante and Italian Australian Writers

This paper is the full version of a summary talk presented at the Canberra Dante Society on 23 April 2021. The talk was prepared at very short notice (Franco Papandrea having asked me to present only one month previously) and only 20 minutes were allowed for the treatment of a somewhat complex and wide-ranging topic. In researching Italian Australian writing over the years I had noted en passant a substantial number of Dante influences so Franco’s proposal was thus an interesting and challenging one. The main objective of this paper is to provide: (i) the general context of Dante’s influence on Italian Australian writers; (ii) a microanalysis of Dante influences on selected Italian Australian writers. During the April meeting Theodore Ell explored how Anglo-Australian poets have found sources and inspiration in Dante in subtle and in a sense distant ways. Dante has had a much wider impact on the Italian Australian community (particularly the first generation) and for Italian Australian writers, poets in particular, Dante has proved to be more direct, closer and even more significant as source and inspiration than for Anglo-Australian poets.<p></p>