The Legacy of Primo Levi

This collection represents some of the latest research on Primo Levi, the famous Auschwitz survivor Italian author, in the field of Italian Studies, Holocaust Studies, Jewish Studies, literary theory, philosophy, and ethics. The author has collected an impressive group of scholars, including Ian Thomson, who has published a well-received biography of Levi in the UK (a US edition is due this year); Alexander Stille, who is a staff writer got the New Yorker as well as for the New York Times (he is also the author of Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families under Fascism ); and David Mendel, who knew Levi and had an extensive correspondence with the Italian writer. There are four essays on Levi's complex and fertile theory of the 'Gray Zone' and further essays on the myriad aspects of this thought. This is an excellent collection with new perspectives and interpretations of the life and work of Primo Levi.

Editor's Note Introduction: Trauma/Transgression/Testimony; S.G.Pugliese PART I: WRITING A Clear Eye on Life: Renaissance Style in Primo Levi's Writing; F.Misurella Primo Levi' Short Stories: A Modern Midrashim; R.M.Speelman Primo Levi, Dante and 'The Canto of Ulysees'; N.Patruno The Genesis of If This is a Man; I.Thomson PART II: JUDAISM Primo Levi and the Jews; D.Mendel, M.D . The Jewishness of Primo Levi; J.Sungoloswky A Hybridism of Sounds: Primo Levi Between Judaism and Literature; S.Parussa PART III: MEMORY The Object(s) of Memory: Models of Remembering in Primo Levi's Se Questo è un uomo; T.Campbell Primo Levi's Odyssey: The Drowned and the Saved; I.Bertoletti 'The Pain of Remembering': Primo Levi's Poetry and the Function of Memory; J.Losey The Drowned a Saviors of Humanity: The Anthropological Value of Se Questo è un uomo; A.Philippe PART IV: PHILOSOPHY Primo Levi, La Tregua and the Politics of Holocaust Representation; M.Stone Primo Levi, & Giorgio Agamben; D.Leshem PART V: THE GRAY ZONE The Gray Zone Expanded; J.Warmund A Typology of Gray Flowers: Primo Levi and Viktor Frankl on Auschwitz; T.E.Pytell 'The Gray Zone' as a Complex of Tensions: Primo Levi on Holocaust Survival; M.L.Baird PART VI: AFTER AUSCHWITZ The Biblographical Fallacy; A.Stille On the Dangers of Reading Suicide into the Works of Primo Levi; J.Druker A Bibliography of English and Italian Scholarly Writings on Primo Levi, 1985-2002; J.Tasato Mellone Contributors Index

Stanislao G. Pugliese is Distinguished Professor of Italian and Italian American Studies at Hofstra University, USA.