New Reflections on Primo Levi: Before and After Auschwitz (Italian and Italian American Studies)

Primo Levi’s hold on scholarly, critical and public attention grows with the passing of time.  He commands a position of prominence in discourses ranging across the disciplines of Holocaust studies, Jewish studies, Italian literature, politics, history and philosophy.  Certain of his concepts (the “grey zone”) or certain concepts popularized through his works (the Musulmann phenomenon) play a significant role in contemporary intellectual discourse.  In addition, Levi’s reflections on the act and the possibility of witness, and of recounting trauma, are increasingly cited by a range of thinkers.

This book presents a baker’s dozen of interpretative keys to Levi’s output and thought.  It deepens our understanding of common themes in Levi studies (memory and witness) while exploring unusual and revealing byways (Levi and Calvino, or Levi and theater, for example).  Of special interest and utility are the chapters that situate his thought within wider contexts: his epistemological connection to ancient Greeks, and his contributions to Holocaust phenomenology.