ABSTRACT
With Viaggio in Sardegna, Elio Vittorini's quest for a personal narrative style seemed to undergo a significant change. In the summer of 1932, the literary journal L'ltalia letteraria publicised a competition to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of D'Annunzio's' literary cruise' to Sardinia. A shortened version of Vittorini's account was first published in L'Italia letteraria in 1932 and other extracts appeared in Solaria and Il Bargello the following year. The stylistic evolution of the Sardinian prose work, however, is worthy of examination. A comparison of the first version published in periodicals with the second in volume form reveals Vittorini's decision to reduce both the realistic detail and the intrusion of the narrator, in order to increase the lyrical character of the book. Vittorini's ideas concerning his new poetic style can be gathered from some comments he made in his journalistic writing. Certainly the journey to Sardinia provided Vittorini with an intense experience in both existential and intellectual terms.
