Da un metagrido a un grido

The article focuses on a case of rewriting of a short episode in the narrative of Erri De Luca. It is all about a cry: in 1930, in the harbour of Naples, an anonymous woman who is watching the departure of a ship suddenly cries out the name of Salvatore, probably her son being on the ship to emigrate to America. This episode, narrated in the tale “Udito: un grido” first published 1993, returns with striking lexical similarities in the drama L’Ultimo viaggio di Sindbad, 2003. Despite the similarities, one can not consider the second occurrence as a mere copy of the first, because of subtle variations on many levels: change of genre, narrator and perspective give the second occurrence of the cry episode a wider significance, strongly emphazising orality and actualizing a mythical dimension.