Encountering Primo Levi

Reading and Teaching Trauma Narratives
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-032-06896-5
Verlag: Palgrave Macmillan

Buch, Englisch, 198 Seiten, Format (B × H): 153 mm x 216 mm, Gewicht: 406 g

Reihe: Italian and Italian American Studies

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.

Zielgruppe

Research

Autoren/Hrsg.

Chaffin, Cheryl

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Romanische Literaturen Italienische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Jüdische Studien Geschichte des Judentums Antisemitismus, Pogrome, Shoah
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Einzelne Autoren: Monographien & Biographien
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Deutsche Geschichte Deutsche Geschichte: Holocaust
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtswissenschaft Allgemein Geschichtspolitik, Erinnerungskultur

Inhaltsverzeichnis

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.

Über Autor(innen)

Cheryl Chaffin is a Professor of English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Cabrillo College, USA. She previously published