Paul Ricoeur y Primo Levi : identidad narrativa y testimonio

En este texto se presenta y se discute el concepto de identidad narrativa y el testimonio concretamente a través de la filosofía del francés Paul Ricoeur y del Italiano Primo Levi. Comienzo por plantear el problema del cogito y la respuesta de Ricoeur con el concepto de atestación bosquejando la pregunta sobre el quién, que habla, narra o lee. Se Continúa con la dialéctica entre el idem y el ipse como dos formas de explicar la identidad. Esto lleva a trazar la identidad narrativa y las preguntas sobre ¿Quién narra? y ¿Quién lee? Así se va dilucidando mediante el texto de Levi la idea de catarsis o de evaluación tanto para el narrador como para el lector que en su texto o lectura, respectivamente, buscan un sentido para el acontecimiento. Al final y como síntesis entre el testimonio y la identidad narrativa se subraya la pregunta sobre ¿Quién es responsable? introduciendo el carácter ético de la identidad narrativa.

A narrativa de Primo Levi: um espaço de memória e testemunho

This monograph aims to analyze the work Se questo è un uomo, in wich the author Primo Levi narrates his memories about the time when he used to be a prisoner of a concentration camp during World War II. The analysis will be done through theoretical interpretations upon Testimony Literature or Trauma Literature, that brings out a time of disaster, leading the reader to relive the Holocaust from questioning its relation with the commitment with the real

Um autorretrato de Primo Levi: as raízes literárias da narrativa de Auschwitz

Th e anthology La ricerca della radice written by Primo Levi allows the reader to understand the intellectual infl uences received throughout his life. Th e aim of this paper is to establish analytic relation between the authors contained in the personal anthology of Primo Levi and his historical narrative about Auschwitz.

Primo Levi y Jorge Semprún : Dos modos de configurar el pasado

El siglo XX en general y la Segunda Guerra Mundial en particular, marcan una inflexión en relación con los estudios sobre el concepto de memoria. Holocausto o Shoa se constituyen en una matriz, determinando lo que se denominó como "deber de memoria". Así Auschwitz como emblema del nazismo, pone de relevancia los problemas por la apropiación del pasado. A partir de ello, esta comunicación focalizará en dos textos de la literatura del Lager: La mort qu íl faut, de Jorge Semprún e I sommersi e i salvati, de Primo Levi. Ambos ponen de manifiesto situaciones en relación con la apropiación del pasado y la configuración de la memoria. Por un lado, la constitución de memorias en pugna: la del nazismo y la de los sobrevivientes de los campos. Y por otro, y estableciendo la relación de ésta y testimonio, la polémica asordinada que Semprún establece con Levi y algunos historiadores

Primo Levi y Jorge Semprún : Dos modos de configurar el pasado

El siglo XX en general y la Segunda Guerra Mundial en particular, marcan una inflexión en relación con los estudios sobre el concepto de memoria. Holocausto o Shoa se constituyen en una matriz, determinando lo que se denominó como "deber de memoria". Así Auschwitz como emblema del nazismo, pone de relevancia los problemas por la apropiación del pasado. A partir de ello, esta comunicación focalizará en dos textos de la literatura del Lager: La mort qu íl faut, de Jorge Semprún e I sommersi e i salvati, de Primo Levi. Ambos ponen de manifiesto situaciones en relación con la apropiación del pasado y la configuración de la memoria. Por un lado, la constitución de memorias en pugna: la del nazismo y la de los sobrevivientes de los campos. Y por otro, y estableciendo la relación de ésta y testimonio, la polémica asordinada que Semprún establece con Levi y algunos historiadores

Primo Levi y Jorge Semprún : Dos modos de configurar el pasado

El siglo XX en general y la Segunda Guerra Mundial en particular, marcan una inflexión en relación con los estudios sobre el concepto de memoria. Holocausto o Shoa se constituyen en una matriz, determinando lo que se denominó como "deber de memoria". Así Auschwitz como emblema del nazismo, pone de relevancia los problemas por la apropiación del pasado. A partir de ello, esta comunicación focalizará en dos textos de la literatura del Lager: La mort qu íl faut, de Jorge Semprún e I sommersi e i salvati, de Primo Levi. Ambos ponen de manifiesto situaciones en relación con la apropiación del pasado y la configuración de la memoria. Por un lado, la constitución de memorias en pugna: la del nazismo y la de los sobrevivientes de los campos. Y por otro, y estableciendo la relación de ésta y testimonio, la polémica asordinada que Semprún establece con Levi y algunos historiadores

Text as Resistance in Holocaust Literature: Struggles for Personhood in Wiesel, Levi, and Delbo

This thesis is an examination of the memoirs of three core Holocaust writers, Elie Wiesel (Night and Day), Primo Levi (If This is A Man), and Charlotte Delbo (Auschwitz and After), exploring the ways in which each of the three authors uses his or her memoir to simultaneously document and resist the dehumanizing influence of the concentration camp experience.

El otro mundo de Levi : ciencia y ciencia ficción en Storie naturali

En 1966 el escritor Primo Levi publica la colección de cuentos Storie naturali (Historias naturales), con el seudónimo de Damiano Malabaila. A la primera lectura, el volumen parece muy alejado de la temática testimonial de sus obras más famosas y llama la atención del lector su componente irónico que parece contrastar con los tonos dramáticos de Se questo è un uomo, Se non ora, quando (Si esto es un hombre, Si no ahora, cuándo). Sin embargo, este humorismo nace de la actitud asumida por el escritor-químico, que se interesa por las contradicciones de la vida, del escritor que, por propio reconocimiento, declara ser, literalmente, un voyeur; un observador, un etólogo diríamos hoy. Este trabajo se propone realizar un análisis de esta obra que podría colocarse en el ámbito de la ciencia ficción, teniendo en cuenta su temática, los antecedentes y fuentes, tanto literarias como científicas, y el valor de lo lingüístico, en especial el tono de oralidad que le brinda a sus relatos.

Le sang du ciel, un témoignage-fiction pour interroger la vérité

L'objectif de cette recherche est de réfléchir à la notion de vrai dans l'économie discursive du témoignage. C'est-à-dire que ce mémoire se concentre sur le rapport entre le discours critique et académique d'une part, et le discours littéraire de l'autre. Une première partie s'attache à délimiter les contours de du problème, à partir notamment des notions de de vrai et de vraisemblable. Une étude comparative permet d'introduire trois auteurs qui serviront d'exemple tout au long de la recherche: Primo Levi, Jorge Semprun, et Charlotte Delbo. On fait un bref survol de l'évolution des deux économies discursives depuis les tout premiers témoignages (années 40-50) jusqu'au tournant narratif symbolisé par le procès Eichmann. Cela correspond aussi à la parution d'un témoignage à part: Le sang du ciel, de Piotr Rawicz. La seconde partie est un état de la question sur le roman de Rawicz. Comment le fait qu'il s'agisse d'une fiction, notamment, a été discuté par la critique et dans les contributions universitaires qui lui sont consacrées. Cette incursion dans l'herméneutique nous permet d'identifier trois vagues critiques distinctes, selon les époques et les pays. Enfin, la dernière partie s'attache à montrer que Le sang du ciel est un témoignage pensé comme un projet esthétique, dont la modernité ne cède pas à la facilité du refus de dire de quoi on parle, mais qui au contraire pose des questions de son temps et ose aborder les sujets que l'on doit taire selon la doxa.

Marginalising the marginal in holocaust films : fictional representations of jewish policeman

This paper explores the issue of how Jewish victims who occupied so-called 'privileged' positions during the Holocaust are represented in fictional films. Such figures, particularly Jewish policemen in the ghettos, may be seen to inhabit the 'marginal' in two ways, both in terms of the unprecedented ethical dilemmas they faced, and the relative lack of attention such figures have received. Taking Primo Levi's paradigmatic essay on the 'grey zone' as a point of departure, this paper analyses how Jewish policemen are represented in mainstream, 'Hollywood' fictional films, namely Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List, in order to reveal that the narrative concerns of such works preclude any serious engagement with themes of moral ambiguity and 'compromise'. Attention will also be given to a more recent trend in the genre of Holocaust film that directly confronts these issues, nonetheless such films may themselves be viewed as marginalised due to their subject matter.

Representation and judgement : 'privileged' Jews in Holocaust writing and film

This thesis analyses the ways in which moral judgements of so-called privileged Jews are constructed in Holocaust representations. ‘Privileged’ Jews include those prisoners in the camps and ghettos who held positions which gave them access to material and other benefits. Subject to extreme levels of coercion, these victims were compelled to act in ways that have often been judged as both self-serving and harmful to fellow inmates. Such controversial figures constitute an intrinsically important, frequently misunderstood and hastily judged facet of the Holocaust. Scholars have neglected the problem of judgement in relation to ‘privileged’ Jews; nonetheless, Holocaust texts frequently portray these liminal figures.

Of crucial importance to the thesis is Primo Levi’s paradigmatic essay entitled ‘The Grey Zone,’ which directly engages with the complex and sensitive issue of ‘privileged’ Jews. Levi argues that due to the extreme ethical dilemmas that ‘privileged’ Jews confronted, any judgement of these victims needs to be suspended. However, if, as Levi suggests, judgement is at times impossible, the thesis challenges Levi’s assumption by contending that representations of ‘privileged’ Jews inevitably take a moral position. In this way, the thesis conceptualises judgement as a ‘limit’ of representation. Indeed, it is shown that Levi himself cannot abstain from judging those for whom he argues judgement should be suspended.

The thesis takes Levi’s concept of the ‘grey zone’ as a point of departure in order to examine the problems of judgement and representation in relation to ‘privileged’ Jews. Analysis focuses on Raul Hilberg’s influential historical work and examples of documentary and fiction films. The thesis examines how Hilberg and several filmmakers employ conventions as a means of conveying judgement. It is argued that self-reflexive representations of ‘privileged’ Jews in film, particularly fictional dramatisation, have the potential to provide a nuanced representation of ‘privileged’ Jews, which engages with Levi’s ideas by questioning the possibility of judgement.

Beyond ‘good’ and ‘evil’: breaking down binary oppositions in holocaust representations of ‘privileged’ Jews

In 1986, Auschwitz survivor Primo Levi’s paradigmatic essay entitled ‘The Grey Zone’ highlighted the complex and sensitive issue of so-called ‘privileged’ Jews, an issue that remains at the margins of popular and academic discourse on the Holocaust. ‘Privileged’ Jews include those prisoners in the Nazi concentration camps and ghettos who held positions that gave them access to material and other benefits whilst compelling them to act in ways that have been judged both self-serving and harmful to fellow inmates. The unprecedented ethical dilemmas that confronted ‘privileged’ Jews may be viewed as exemplifying the ‘limit’ events or experiences that were characteristic of the Holocaust, situating them at the threshold of representation, understanding and judgement. Levi’s essay singles out history and film as particularly predisposed to a simplifying trend he identifies – the ‘Manichean tendency which shuns half-tints and complexities,’ and resorts to the black-and-white binary opposition(s) of ‘friend’ and ‘enemy,’‘good’ and ‘evil.’ In the case of ‘privileged’ Jews in particular, such binary oppositions would appear to be inadequate. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates the fields of history, philosophy and literature, this paper analyses representations of ‘privileged’ Jews, particularly those prisoners of the Sonderkommandos who were forced to work in the crematoria. The paper demonstrates how easily the boundary Levi maps out for moral judgement can be crossed. It is shown that while Levi suggests judgement should be suspended when confronted with the experiences of victims in extremis, moral evaluations of ‘privileged’ Jews permeate discussions and representations of the Holocaust. When confronted with such emotionally and morally freighted issues, judgement may itself be seen as a ‘limit of representation.’

Confronting 'choiceless choices' in Holocaust videotestimonies : judgement, 'privileged' Jews, and the role of the interviewer

'Privileged' Jews include those prisoners in the camps and ghettos who held positions which gave them access to material and other benefits. Subject to extreme levels of coercion, these victims were compelled to act in ways that have been judged as both self-serving and harmful to fellow inmates. Such situations, which exemplify what influential theorist Lawrence Langer terms 'choiceless choices', are the chief concern of Primo Levi's paradigmatic essay on the 'grey zone'. In light of these key conceptualizations of the ethical dilemmas of Holocaust victims, the paper analyses the representation of 'privileged' Jews in several videotestimonies recorded at the Jewish Holocaust Museum and Research Centre (JHMRC) in Melbourne, Australia. It will be shown that judgements of victims in extremis cause considerable problems for attempts to testify to the complex situations and experiences of 'privileged' Jews. The role of the interviewer is a crucial factor in this, particularly when interviewers are themselves Holocaust survivors. The paper reveals that while it might be argued that moral evaluations of 'privileged' Jews should be suspended, judgements are often imposed on Holocaust testimonies in various ways and have a significant impact on their content.