The Influence of Dante, Italy and the Mediterranean Myth in Malcolm Lowry's Fiction

In Malcolm Lowry’s fiction, it is worth underlining the deep influence not only of the Mediterranean Myth and of Italy, but also of the main Italian Poet Dante Alighieri and of his pattern of life-death-rebirth, which is developed in his long poem Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy). Dante’s poetry, Italian culture and the correlated Mediterranean myth offer the most explicit metaphors of the life/death/rebirth pattern. In fact, Lowry's fiction, which is built on the interweaving of several metaphorical and symbolic strata, suggests the dynamic process of self-discovery through recurrent references to the life-death-rebirth pattern. Lowry's two visits to Italy, respectively in 1948-49 and in 1954-55, were somehow fictionalized, but what is really worth focusing here is how the Italian poet Dante and the related Mediterranean myth are at work in Lowry’s fiction, considering the great abundance of Lowry's associations and references.