Primo Levi and the Holocaust in Italy Padua Program

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LI 459/RN 459: Primo Levi And the Holocaust in Italy Padua Program Summer 2014 Professor Nancy Harrowitz, Dept. of Romance Studies Boston University This course focuses on the Italian Holocaust survivor Primo Levi, who contributed some of the most provocative and influential writings on the Holocaust. In confronting this catastrophic event, he employed a variety of interdisciplinary approaches: scientific, literary, theological and philosophical. We will discuss these perspectives within the broader context of the Holocaust in Italy, including the writings of Giorgio Bassani and Elie Wiesel. Trips to Levi’s hometown of Turin and to Bassani’s home in Ferrara are included, as are films based on the works of both authors. COURSE TEXTS: Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz The Reawakening The Drowned and the Saved (photocopies) Giorgio Bassani, short stories Doris Bergen, War and Genocide (second edition) Michael Morgan, essays (photocopies) COURSE REQUIREMENTS: Oral report: 15 minutes, copy of report to be turned in before report is given, 10% of the grade. First paper, 4 pages, 20%. Midterm exam, 20%, Second paper, 6 to 8 pages, 30% Class participation, 20%. Students are responsible for completing the assigned readings before class and coming to class with reading notes prepared to discuss them. Attendance is required. SCHEDULE: Week 1: Introduction to Primo Levi; Survival in Auschwitz; preface to The Drowned and the Saved (pp. 11-22); Elie Wiesel, A Plea for the Dead, photocopy. Discuss Bergen, War and Genocide. Week 2: Survival in Auschwitz. Film, “Primo.” Bergen. First paper due. Week 3: The Reawakening; film “The Truce.” Theological Approaches: Richard Rubenstein, ”The Making of a Rabbi,” (photocopy). Field trip to Turin. Week 4: Levi, The Drowned and the Saved, “The Gray Zone,” “Shame.” Scientific Approaches: Levi’s science fiction stories, “Versamina,” ”Angelic Butterfly;” essay, “Hatching the Cobra,” (photocopies), midterm exam. Week 5: Introduction to Giorgio Bassani; film, “The Garden of the Finzi-Contini,” stories (photocopies), field trip to Ferrara. Week 6: Conclusion and final paper due. ACADEMIC CONDUCT Students are expected to abide by the CAS Academic Conduct Code, available in the CAS advising office. Cases of suspected academic misconduct, including plagiarism, will be referred to the Dean's Office. .

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Surviving the Holocaust: Jean Améry and Primo Levi
Surviving the Holocaust: Jean Améry and Primo Levi by Livia Pavelescu A thesis submitted to the Department of German Language and Literature in confonnity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada August 2000 Copyright OLivia Pavelescu, 2000 National Li'brary Bibliothèque nationale du Canada uisitions and Acquisitions et 9-&b iographi Senrices services bibliographiques 395 wtmlgm Street 395. Ne WeUington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 OttawaON KfAW Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distniute or sell reproduire, prêter, distri'buer ou copies of îhis thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de rnicrofiche/fiIm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur fomat électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantîal extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract This study is predicated on the assumption that there is a culture of the Holocaust in Austria and Itaiy and that its strongest manifestation is the literahire of the Holocaust. The purpose of this thesis is twofold. First it detemiines a representative spectnun of reaction to the Holocaust by using two texts Se questo è un uomo (Sumival in Auschwitz) and Jemeits von Schuld und Sühne (At the MNld'S Limits) of two prominent writen, Primo Levi and Jean Améry.
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1 Primo Levi’s “Small Differences” and the Art of The Periodic Table: A Reading of “Potassium” Murray Baumgarten Monday, August 8, 2011 The brief narratives that make up Primo Levi’s masterful account of a young man’s modern education take the reader through 21 elements of Mendeleev’s Periodic Table, from which the book takes its name. Each episode—Primo Levi calls them “moments”1 -- focuses on one element: we begin with Argon – the inert, noble gas echoing the passivity and accommodation of his Italian Jewish ancestors – and conclude more than 230 pages later with Carbon, whose ability to join with many other elements in what some have thought of as impure combinations, powers life, and generates the kinesthetic action of writing, with which the book concludes. Discourses of Science and of Art: The Two Primo Levis Playing the building blocks of the scientific elements against the personal experience of the narrator, Primo Levi constructs an interactive account. Here scientific analysis and technological know-how engage social observation and psychological 2 description—a combination discussed by several scholars – and noted in Rothberg and Druker’s account in Shofar. 2 The impact of the combination, as Pierpaolo Antonello notes, defines central features of the writing: “The kind of virtues that Levi fosters through his work in the lab” and seeks to lead the reader to engage are “multifold: his is a form of distributed, holistic intelligence, in which mental reasoning is combined with the sagacity of smell, touch, and the intuitiveness of the eye.” They build on the “other virtues .
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“IF THIS IS a MAN” the LIFE and LEGACY of PRIMO LEVI Wednesday and Thursday October 23 and 24, 2002
CALL FOR PAPERS HOFSTRA CULTURAL CENTER presents “IF THIS IS A MAN” THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF PRIMO LEVI Wednesday and Thursday October 23 and 24, 2002 Hofstra University is proud to sponsor an international conference on the life and philosophy of Primo Levi (1919-1987). His memoir, Survival in Auschwitz (If This Is a Man), has claimed a place among the masterpieces of Holocaust literature. Levi’s last work, The Drowned and the Saved, is arguably the most profound meditation on the Shoah. In his lifetime Levi forged an impressive body of work, and his writings remain a powerful reminder of what transpired in the extermination camps of Europe and what it means to be human after Auschwitz. We welcome paper proposals on any number of topics, including but not limited to: Levi and the Culture of Turin Levi and Italian Jews The Holocaust vs. the Culture of Science Memory and Holocaust Memoirs Language and Writing Levi, Theater and Film Representations of the Holocaust Suicide (?) Proposals for other presentations, lecture/demonstrations, panels, round-tables and workshops are also welcomed. A letter of intent, a three- to five-page abstract (in duplicate) and curriculum vitae should be sent by January 18, 2002, to: PRIMO LEVI CONFERENCE Hofstra Cultural Center (HCC) 200 Hofstra University Hempstead, New York 11549-2000 The deadline for completed double-spaced papers in duplicate is August 2, 2002. Presentation time for papers, lectures, lecture/demonstrations and workshops is limited to 20 minutes. (Papers should be limited to 10-12 typed, double- spaced pages, excluding notes.) As selected papers will be published in the conference proceedings, previously published material should not be submitted.
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Rethinking Primo Levi
Rethinking Primo Levi Primo Levi’s influence in the field of Holocaust studies cannot be underestimated, and the Ottawa conference provides an excellent opportunity to take stock of the effects. From Survival in Auschwitz (1947; 1958) to The Drowned and the Saved (1986), Levi’s writings have become authoritative canonical works of Holocaust literature, providing consistent reference points in our attempts to understand the Nazi camps. Levi’s acerbic account of the Dante-esque descent of the innocent to “the bottom”; his unflinching anatomy of that swift and brutal transformation he calls “the demolition of a man”; and his iteration of the first lesson of Auschwitz—“here there is no why”—have profoundly affected Holocaust scholarship. Indeed, terms and concepts in his work have provided scholars with a number of paradigms. These include the “gray zone,” Levi’s term for the range of compromised human behavior in the camp; Levi’s claim that “if the Lagers had lasted longer a new, harsh language would have been born, ”given that “free words” fail to account for the devastation of camp internment and torture; and his portrayal of “the Muselmänner” as the mute living dead—the “complete witnesses,” who cannot testify and in whose stead the survivors must therefore speak. Seeking to rethink such paradigmatic uses of Levi, this panel focuses on Levi as a writer and author of significant Holocaust texts, but also as a scientist; a writer of science fiction; a sexual being questioning his manhood; and a recorder and critic of the human condition broadly. Following Berel Lang’s 2013 biography of Levi, which proposes that we see Levi’s life as a series of tensions, we probe the“divided road” between his life as a pre-war scientist and a post-war writer; his personal and more global moral commitments; and his ambivalent feelings about his own Jewishness.
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For immediate release Subject : Homage to Alberto Moravia: in conversation with Dacia Maraini At: the Italian Cultural Institute , 39 Belgrave Square, London SW1X 8NX Date: 26th October 2007 Time: 6.30 pm Entrance fee £5.00, booking essential More information : Press Officer: Stefania Bochicchio direct line 0207 396 4402 Email [email protected] The Italian Cultural Institute in London is proud to host an evening of celebration of the writings of Alberto Moravia with the celebrated Italian writer Dacia Maraini in conversation with Sharon Wood. David Morante will read extracts from Moravia’s works. Alberto Moravia , born Alberto Pincherle , (November 28, 1907 – September 26, 1990) was one of the leading Italian novelists of the twentieth century whose novels explore matters of modern sexuality, social alienation, and existentialism. or his anti-fascist novel Il Conformista ( The Conformist ), the basis for the film The Conformist (1970) by Bernardo Bertolucci; other novels of his translated to the cinema are Il Disprezzo ( A Ghost at Noon or Contempt ) filmed by Jean-Luc Godard as Le Mépris ( Contempt ) (1963), and La Ciociara filmed by Vittorio de Sica as Two Women (1960). In 1960, he published one of his most famous novels, La noia ( The Empty Canvas ), the story of the troubled sexual relationship between a young, rich painter striving to find sense in his life and an easygoing girl, in Rome. It won the Viareggio Prize and was filmed by Damiano Damiani in 1962. An adaptation of the book is the basis of Cedric Kahn's the film L'ennui ("The Ennui") (1998). In 1960, Vittorio De Sica cinematically adapted La ciociara with Sophia Loren; Jean- Luc Godard filmed Il disprezzo ( Contempt ) (1963); and Francesco Maselli filmed Gli indifferenti (1964).
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As in the All the Other of Levi's Holocaust Poems I Discuss in This
Poetry as testimony: Primo Levi's collected poems Rowland, AC http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09502360802271462 Title Poetry as testimony: Primo Levi's collected poems Authors Rowland, AC Type Article URL This version is available at: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/9509/ Published Date 2008 USIR is a digital collection of the research output of the University of Salford. Where copyright permits, full text material held in the repository is made freely available online and can be read, downloaded and copied for non-commercial private study or research purposes. Please check the manuscript for any further copyright restrictions. For more information, including our policy and submission procedure, please contact the Repository Team at: [email protected]. Poetry as Testimony: Primo Levi’s Collected Poems Critics in the field of Holocaust and Trauma Studies have regarded the relationship between poetry and testimony as either non-existent or self-explanatory. In Testimony: Crises of Witnessing in Literature, Psychoanalysis, and History, Shoshana Felman and Dori Laub discuss Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Celan poems alongside Albert Camus’s novel The Plague, Sigmund Freud’s work and life testimonies, without commenting on the shift between analyses of different genres.1 Yet testimony is generally seen as an ‘unaesthetic’ form of written or oral attestation to historical suffering opposed to more self-consciously literary forms such as poetry. Hence in Beyond the Limit-Experience, Gary Mole illustrates that some critics assume that ‘the poetic and the testimonial [are] somehow incompatable’; Sue Vice points out that ‘it is not poetic testimony but prose testimony that is typical of Holocaust eye-witness, while Holocaust poetry is considered a separate and self-contained genre’.2 In this article I argue that, when a critical opposition between poetry and testimony is unravelled, Primo Levi’s poems can be read productively as testimonial acts.
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Primo-Levi-The-Voice-Of-Memory
THE VOICE OF MEMORY PRIMO LEVI Interviews, 1961-1987 Edited by M A R C 0 B E L P 0 L I T I and R 0 B E R T G 0 R D 0 N "Primo Levi is one of the most important and gifted writers of our time." -ITALO CALVINO The Voice of Memory The Voice of Memory Interviews 1961-1987 Primo Levi Edited by Marco Belpoliti and Robert Gordon Translated by Robert Gordon The New Press New York This collection © 2001 by Polity Press First published in Italy as Primo Levi: Conversazioni e interviste 1963-87, edited by Marco Belpoliti © 1997 Guilio Einaudi, 1997, with the exception of the interviews beginning on pages 3, 13, 23, and 34 (for further details see Acknowledgments page). All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, in any form, without written permission from the publisher. First published in the United Kingdom by Polity Press in association with Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 2001 Published in the United States by The New Press, New York, 2001 Distributed by W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York ISBN 1-56584-645-1 (he.) CIP data available. The New Press was established in 1990 as a not-for-profit alternative to the large, commercial publishing houses currently dominating the book publishing industry. The New Press operates in the public interest rather than for private gain, and is committed to publishing, in innovative ways, works of educational, cultural, and community value that are often deemed insufficiently profitable. The New Press, 450West 41st Street, 6th floor, NewYork, NY 10036 www.thenewpress.com Set in Plantin Printed in the
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University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/77618 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. Kate Elizabeth Willman PhD Thesis September 2015 NEW ITALIAN EPIC History, Journalism and the 21st Century ‘Novel’ Italian Studies School of Modern Languages and Cultures University of Warwick 1 ~ TABLE OF CONTENTS ~ Acknowledgements ………………………………………………………………………...... 4 Declaration …………………………………………………………………………………... 5 Abstract …………………………………………………………………………………….... 6 INTRODUCTION ………………………………………………………………………..... 7 - Wu Ming and the New Italian Epic …………………………………………………. 7 - Postmodern Impegno ……………………………………………………………….. 12 - History and Memory ……………………………………………………………….. 15 - Representing Reality in the Digital Age ………………………………………….... 20 - Structure and Organisation …………………………………………………………. 25 CHAPTER ONE ‘Nelle lettere italiane sta accadendo qualcosa’: The Memorandum on the New Italian Epic ……………………………………………………………………..... 32 - New ………………………………………………………………………………… 36 - Italian ……………………………………………………………………………….. 50 - Epic …………………………………………………………………………………. 60 CHAPTER TWO Periodisation ………………………………………………………….. 73 - 1993 ………………………………………………………………………………… 74 - 2001 ...........................................................................................................................
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