Blogtrotter

Amalia Popper & Emma Cucci: Models for Giacomo Joyce's Dark Ladies

These two women have been suggested as the inspirations for the Jewish Italian girl with whom the speaker, "Giacomo-Jamesy-Jim" becomes enamored in his short prose poem (reviewed in the previous post and on Amazon US). Amalia Popper's own intriguing story as a Jewish woman who became a Fascist, and Emma Cucci, born of a "mixed marriage," also surviving in Italy, can be found at the Joyce Trieste Museum. Images: Emma gets only a squinting snapshot; Amalia earns the modernist portrait. Click links boxed at the center right under a picture of Himself labelled "Joyce & Trieste" and then link below at "People" to move to the alphabetical cast of characters Joyce knew there, with entries on Amalia & Emma. Many other Triestine connections with the many years Joyce spent on the Adriatic, as John McCourt's recent book has explored among other scholars, can be sampled at this site if, like me, you cannot afford a jaunt to Istria.

http://www.retecivica.trieste.it/joyce/vis_articolo.asp?pagina=-&link=20&tipo=articoli_dx_6&ids=3