«A curious adventure in Constantine». On Alberto Savinio as a reader (and rewriter) of Apuleius

This paper provides an in-depth analysis of Alberto Savinio’s article Metamorphoseon, published in the Italian newspaper «La Stampa» in 1935 and then included, with minimal variations, in the romance Ascolto il tuo cuore, città (1944). The central section of the article, a peculiar kind of travel memoir describing the visit to the Algerian city of Constantine, close to the birthplace of Apuleius, Madauros, engages a close intertextual relationship with the Metamorphoses. The ‘metamorphic’ landscape surrounding the city, the meager hospitality provided by the most distinguished man in town, and – most notably – the ‘curious adventure’ occurred to Savinio in his house seem all forged on the Apuelian hypotext. Also in Savinio, then, the mocking experience of metamorphosis unleashes laughter, but also constitutes a subtle form of initiation, illuminating the ever-changing multiformity of reality.