At first glance, a pair like Dante and James Joyce seems highly unlikely. In fact, I brought them together because I have devoted myself extensively to both on websites I have created (not pointed here because it would deviate the reasoning and after this introduction at the end I will provide their addresses) and there are many aspects of both that can enter into our discussion about literature and reality. Briefly, the relationship between the two can be considered as follows:  

Dante Alighieri

Dante is the first realist author and perhaps the greatest. He was the first to configure (quoting Michael Dirda in his introduction to Auerbach’s Dante: Poet of the Secular World):

“…man, not as a remote legendary hero, not as an abstract or anecdotal representative of an ethical type, but man as we know him in his living historical reality, the concrete individual in his unity and wholeness; and in that he has been followed by all subsequent portrayers of man, regardless of whether they treated a historical or a mythical or a religious subject, for after Dante myth and legend also became history.”

Dante is not a religious poet only. He is far more than that: he is a “poet of the secular world”. What is secular? It is  not subject to or bound by religious rule; not belonging to or living in a monastic or other order.

In Dante’s vision, people laugh and conspire, love and hate, sin and triumph over sin, even though technically disembodied spirits, they show up with their essential character and as Auerbach notices: “though the concrete data of their lives and the atmosphere of their personalities are drawn from their former existences on earth, they manifest them here with a completeness, a concentration an actuality, which they seldom achieved during their term on earth and assuredly never revealed to anyone else”.

Actually for our purposes it is better not to go to Dante, which complicated and time consuming but to go to Auerbach’s Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature, a history of representation in Western literature from ancient to modern times and frequently cited as a classic in the study of realism in literature.

Mimesis famously opens with a comparison between the way the world is represented in Homer’s Odyssey and the way it appears in the Bible. From these two seminal Western texts, Auerbach builds the foundation for a unified theory of representation that spans the entire history of Western literature, including even the Modernist novelists writing at the time Auerbach did his study. (1942/1945)

Mimesis gives an account of the way in which everyday life in its seriousness has been represented by many Western writers, from ancient Greek and Roman writers such as Petronius and Tacitus, early Christian writers such as Augustine, Medieval writers such as Chretien de Troyes, Dante, and Boccaccio, Renaissance writers such as Montaigne, Rabelais, Shakespeare and Cervantes, seventeenth-century writers such as Molière and Racine, Enlightenment writers such as Voltaire, nineteenth-century writers such as Stendhal, Balzac, Flaubert, and Zola, all the way up to twentieth-century writers such as Proust, and Woolf. Despite his treatment of the many major works, Auerbach apparently did not think he was comprehensive enough, and apologized in the original publication in 1946 explaining that he had access only to the ‘insufficient’ resources available in the library at Istanbul University where he worked.^[2] Many scholars consider this relegation to primary texts a happy accident of history, since in their view one of the great strengths of Auerbach’s book is its focus on fine-grained close reading of the original texts rather than an evaluation of critical works.

Details and a more comprehensive analysis from this discussion can be seen at:

Auerbach’s Mimesis

Dante: Poet of the Secular World

The existence of Evil

My site blog on Dante: Dante’s Inferno

James Joyce

I assume that most readers of this discussion have English as their native language or were educated in the English-speaking system.The inclusion of James Joyce’s works in high school curricula varies widely depending on the country, region, and specific educational institution and is almost mandatory for a fair education. Because of that I will not try to do as I did for Dante, which is practically unknown at high school level and will limit to comparing them under our context assuming that the reader has some idea about Joyce. Anyway, if you don’t, perhaps you should browse my James Joyce Encyclopedia and my blog FINNEGANS WAKE.

Connection between James Joyce and Dante Alighieri:

James Joyce had a significant intellectual and artistic connection with Dante Alighieri. This connection is evident in several aspects of Joyce’s work and his personal life:

1. Literary Influence: Joyce was deeply influenced by Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” He admired Dante’s ability to combine complex theological, philosophical, and political themes with rich narrative and poetic techniques. This influence is particularly noticeable in Joyce’s use of symbolism, allegory, and his creation of detailed, layered texts.
2. Structural Parallels: Joyce’s “Ulysses” has been compared to Dante’s “Divine Comedy” in its structural ambition and scope. Just as Dante’s work is divided into three parts (Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso), “Ulysses” follows a highly structured format, with each episode corresponding to different aspects of Homer’s “Odyssey” and various literary styles.
3. Themes of Exile: Both Joyce and Dante experienced exile, which profoundly affected their work. Dante was exiled from Florence and spent much of his life wandering, while Joyce voluntarily exiled himself from Ireland, living in various European cities. Themes of exile, wandering, and the search for identity and belonging are central to both authors’ works.
4. Use of Language and Symbolism: Joyce, like Dante, was a master of language and used it in innovative ways to convey deep meanings. Joyce’s use of stream of consciousness and complex wordplay echoes Dante’s intricate terza rima and symbolic language.
5. Direct References: Joyce makes direct references to Dante in his works. In “A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,” Stephen Dedalus refers to Dante’s works, and in “Ulysses,” there are numerous allusions to Dante, particularly in the “Circe” episode, which contains many infernal images reminiscent of the “Inferno.”
6. Personal Admiration: Joyce expressed his admiration for Dante in his personal writings and letters. He considered Dante one of his greatest influences and often reflected on Dante’s impact on his own literary development.
7. Epiphany and Revelation: The concept of epiphany, which is central to Joyce’s writing, can be linked to the moments of revelation and insight in Dante’s “Divine Comedy.” Both authors use these moments to deepen the reader’s understanding of their characters and themes.

Joyce’s engagement with Dante’s work is a testament to the enduring influence of the medieval poet on modern literature. Joyce’s complex, multifaceted writing style and his exploration of themes such as exile, identity, and revelation reflect a deep and meaningful connection with Dante’s literary legacy.