Read more
Primo Levi s development as a writer was expressed through multiple literary genres and an increasing awareness of his readers over the course of his forty-year writing career. With a focus on memory and trauma, this book explores how narrative acts as a means of telling a story and engaging others in the transmission of that story, thus developing a literary lineage over time that can transcend geographic and cultural boundaries. As the witness to catast
List of contents
1. Introduction: Souls Are Moved.- Part One: On Being Taught.- 2. Literary Lineage: What Does It Mean to Leave a Legacy?.- 3. Books as Teachers: Levi s The Search for Roots.- 4. Learning from Others: Plurality in Levi s Storytelling.- Part Two: Writing and War.- 5. Auschwitz as University: Levi s Poetry and Fiction Post-Deportation.- 6. Befriending a Stranger: How to Live with Other Humans.- 7. To Express Reality Again: Levi and Ginzburg Writing After War.- Part Three: Ethical Reading.- 8. An Archaeology of Witness: The Roots and Practice of Witnessing.- 9. Judges: Responding to an Impossible Request.- 10. Translation and Understanding: Drawing Closer to Original Texts.- 11. Conclusion: Reading in the Present.
About the author
Cheryl Chaffin is a Professor of English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Cabrillo College, USA. She previously published After Poland: A Memoir Because of Primo Levi.
Summary
Primo Levi’s development as a writer was expressed through multiple literary genres and an increasing awareness of his readers over the course of his forty-year writing career. With a focus on memory and trauma, this book explores how narrative acts as a means of telling a story and engaging others in the transmission of that story, thus developing a literary lineage over time that can transcend geographic and cultural boundaries. As the witness to catastrophic historical events, Levi’s writing offers a space to consider what it means to be a reader of traumatic literature. The process of how books affect and change us is explored through a close reading of Levi’s works alongside related writers and the historical contexts in which they lived.
