Primo Levi''s Ordinary Virtues - From Testimony to Ethics

Zusatztext Extraordinary book ... Generous quotations from Levi make the book a pleasure to read ... the chapter on story-telling exemplifies Gordon's approach at its most appealing ... Gordon's book should be read by anyone interested in how a better world might just be possible. Klappentext This book explores the extraordinary depth of Levi the ethical writer across his entire oeuvre, by way of thirteen so-called "ordinary virtues"--the ways and means Levi forges for practically and compassionately engaging with the world. It draws on a wide range of recent thinking about Holocaust literature and the general relationship between literature and ethics. Zusammenfassung Primo Levi was perhaps the most humane and eloquent writer of testimony to emerge from the Nazi Holocaust. But his work also went beyond testimony, tackling many of the founding ethical questions of what it is to be human. This book unveils the extraordinary depth of Levi the ethical writer for the fist time, enhancing his status as one of the key literary figures of the twentieth century. Inhaltsverzeichnis Abreviations Introduction: Beyond Testimony I: The Ethical Turn 1: Looking 2: Memory 3: Discretion, or Language and Silence 4: Uses II: Wit, or Practical Intelligence 5: Measure, or a Sense of Limit 6: Practice, or Trial and Error 7: Perspective, or Looking Again 8: Invention, or First Things III: Community 9: Common Sense 10: Friendship 11: Storytelling IV: Diversions 12: Irony, or Wit Revisited 13: Play Bibliography Index

Product details

• Authors: Robert S C Gordon, Robert S. C. Gordon, Robert S.c. Gordon
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.12.2001
• EAN: 9780198159636
• ISBN: 978-0-19-815963-6
• No. of pages: 328
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > English linguistics / literary studies; Europe, European History, HISTORY / Europe / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / European / Italian, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, Second World War, The Holocaust, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Italian, c 1940 to c 1949, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century / Holocaust, History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / European Theater