The Ghosts of Myth in Alberto Savinio's Works

This essay proposes a comparative study of classical myth in the works of Alberto Savinio. It focuses on a reading of the theme of Childhood in Savinio as an underlying Pathosformel (Aby Warburg) whose symptoms can be found in the recurrent presence of 'the ghosts of myth' as constantly re-emerging remnants of the past. From this perspective, Savinio's works are examined as a corpus of short stories subdivided into three narrative morphologies according to the modalities of the ghosts' manifestations : short stories of appearance, metamorphosis and re-emergence.