Dalla volontà «di fornire documenti per uno studio pacato di alcuni aspetti dell’animo umano» al grido di dolore di Shemà. Per una lettura delle pagine iniziali di Se questo è un uomo di Primo Levi
From the Desire «to supply documents for a coolheaded study of some aspects of the human soul» to Shemà’s Cry of Pain. A Reading of the First Pages of If This Is a Man by Primo Levi

Summary/Abstract: In relation to how Primo Levi tried to tell his concentration camp experience, critical studies repeatedly pointed out a certain stylistic heterogeneity that could lead readers to think of the witness-Levi as a divided and split subject, who is not really at peace with himself. In most of his testimonial prose, Levi is likely to display an unusual – yet purposeful – composed narrative tone (a strategy that is typically used by writers wanting to give a testimony on behalf of a third party). His poems, on the other hand, seem to distinguish themselves for their excruciating peremptoriness and for the easiness with which they provide personal views on situations and people in Nazi concentration camps. This stylistic tension, this different way of dealing with the mere role of “witness” is considerably perceivable since his first memoir. Thus, in If this is a man (1947), between Preface and Poetry, the two parts anticipating the main subject of the following chapters, Levi’s intention to “supply documents for a coolheaded study of some aspects of the human soul” suddenly leaves room for the cry of grief and the warning of Shemà.

• Details
• Contents