Four old ages after the terminal of World War II, the philosopher Theodor Adorno famously asserted that “ to compose poesy after Auschwitz is barbarian ” ( 34 ) . Elie Wiesel echoed this, reasoning that there could be no such thing as Holocaust literature ( 1979 ) . The work of Primo Levi contradicts this by showing that, in fact, non merely could at that place be post-Auschwitz literature ( including poesy ) but that such literature is important in guaranting the Holocaust is non forgotten. In this essay, I will reason that literature and storytelling play a polar function in Levi ‘s If This is a Man, in peculiar relation to memory, individuality, and representation. Intertextuality within Levi ‘s text is peculiarly important in stand foring the failure of any written or spoken words to explicate life in the cantonment, while Levi ‘s memoir itself is a important portion of the organic structure of literature refering the Holocaust that must be read and relayed to guarantee that the events are non forgotten.

Levi ‘s irresistible impulse to state his narrative through the medium of the written word reflects the importance of literature to him as both a captive and a subsister. Levi ‘s ain literacy, most strikingly portrayed through his brumous remembrance of transitions from Dante ‘s Inferno, is critical in the Reconstruction of his individuality as more than merely a “ Haftlinge ” and finally in his endurance. Literature saved Levi, reminding him that he was a adult male and that there were things “ outside ” deserving lasting for. Paradoxically, his artificial commendation of The Canto of Ulysses besides serves to show the insufficiency of any bing literature or linguistic communication to stand for the Holocaust. Whilst Levi the captive compares the Lager to a modern snake pit: “ Today, in our times, snake pit must be like this ” ( If This is a Man 28 ) , Levi the author is cognizant that Dante ‘s Inferno is an unequal referent for stand foring Lager life. Nonetheless, the intertextuality in If This is a Man is a critical literary device in the portraiture of memory and individuality for both Levi and his reader. This essay will concentrate chiefly on the chapter entitled The Canto of Ulysses and on the verse form of the epigraph to research the correlativity between literature, memory, individuality and representation.

The epigraph constitutes a verse form written by Levi and finally entitled ‘Shema ‘ , which means ‘listen ‘ in Hebrew. The verse form calls for its readers non merely to listen to its words but to “ carve them into your Black Marias ” ( If This is a Man 18 ) and to ne’er let the events to be forgotten. Here, for Levi, it is the words themselves that are critical to guaranting that the Holocaust is remembered. Harrowitz argues that

[ aˆ¦ ] if you fail to listen and go through along the tradition of memory, the following coevals will non acknowledge the last [ aˆ¦ ] generational continuity and hence history will be abolished, if this peculiar history is non remembered.

( Primo Levi ‘s Judaic Identity 29 )

The verse form besides asks the reader to see what it is to be human. Therefore, the verse form is besides important to the impression of individuality by oppugning the really construct of ‘human ‘ individuality. Would the reader see the captives as people ; or the guards who inflict impossible horror on the lives of the prisoners? Howes asserts that “ through poesy, Levi connects the paradoxes and jobs built-in in our ( and his ) relationship to the drowned to the inquiry of what it means to be human ” ( 284 ) . The power of the verse form lies in its demand to “ listen ” and in the haunting, measured beat, while the unagitated tone serves as a contrast to the outrageousness of the inquiries that are asked of the reader. We must inquire ourselves what it is to be human and in making so, we must ne’er bury the efforts of the Lager to deprive the captives of these features. Therefore, through this verse form and his literature in general, Levi establishes strong correlativities between literature, memory and individuality and his text enables readers to cognize and relay his narrative to coevalss who are progressively distanced from the events by the transition of clip.

Repeating the importance of ‘storytelling ‘ in this context, Judith Woolf contends that “ merely by stating their narrative [ the captives ] counter the Nazi purpose to turn the mass slaying of the European Jews into a offense without a name ” ( 40 ) . “ Simply stating ” his narrative is, here, an disposed description for Levi ‘s memoir. If This is a Man is written with the detached, unagitated linguistic communication one would tie in with Levi the scientist, despite the urgency of the irresistible impulse that Levi felt to compose his narrative. The horror of his experience speaks for itself and negates the demand for peculiarly facile linguistic communication or the inclusion of literary devices that would otherwise detract from the pureness of his description. Indeed, Levi has explained that the irresistible impulse to portion his narrative and “ to do the ‘rest ‘ participate in it ” ( Preface to If This is a Man 15 ) resulted in the fragmental nature of the book, as the urgency to emancipate his history overrode all other feeling. The authorship procedure itself is inextricably linked with Levi ‘s individuality ; as he described in The Periodic Table, “ [ aˆ¦ ] by composing I found peace for a piece and felt myself go a adult male once more, a individual like everyone else… ” ( The Periodic Table 126 ) .

Intertextuality is besides important in The Periodic Table, with Levi explicating that “ it seemed to me that I would be purified if I told its narrative, and I felt like Coleridge ‘s Ancient Mariner, who waylays on the street the nuptials guests traveling to the banquet, bring downing on them the narrative of his bad luck ” ( The Periodic Table 126 ) . His many-sided individuality so, as chemist, author, and subsister is bound up with his demand to portion, through literature, his experiences and memories. Underscoring the importance to Levi of composing as a tool of communicating, one of his biographers, Carole Angier, wrote in a 2002 Guardian article that Levi

[ aˆ¦ ] was non a saint or a guru, but a adult male, and a divided and tormented one. And Auschwitz did non destruct him. It came really nigh at the clip, and instantly afterwards. But after that it did about the antonym, necessitating him to understand and to pass on, the two things that kept him alive.

In peculiar, it is the urgency of his demand to remember and recite The Canto of Ulysses that is the most dramatic illustration of intertextuality and the importance of literature to individuality and memory. It is imperative for Levi that is he able to associate the Dantean transition to his friend Pikolo “ [ aˆ¦ ] before it is excessively late ; tomorrow he or I might be dead, or we might ne’er see each other once more ” ( If This is a Man 121 ) . Levi implores Pikolo to “ open your ears and your head ” , emphasizing the significance of Ulysses ‘ words to their current state of affairs:

‘Think of your strain ; for beastly ignorance

Your heart was non made ; you were made work forces,

To follow after cognition and excellence. ‘

As if I besides was hearing it for the firs clip: like the blast of a cornet, like the voice of God. For a minute I forget who I am and where I am ” ( If This is a Man 119 ) .

Paradoxically, in remembering and reiterating the canto Levi re-establishes his individuality as an Italian and a bookman, while deriving a new perceptual experience of Ulysses ‘ narrative and gaining the futility of trying to “ follow after cognition and excellence ” in the reductive environment of the Lager. Reynolds supports this, reasoning that by “ linking Ulysses ‘ address to his ain state of affairs, Levi at one time acknowledges that they have been reduced to animals and at the same time calls for opposition to such a decrease ” ( 36 ) . While Dante ‘s Ulysses asserts that the activity which distinguishes work forces from animals is the chase of virtuousness and cognition ( Cambridge Companion ) , the lone beginning of cognition available to Levi in the Lager is his memory. As Reynolds illustrates:

whereas Ulysses ‘ chase of “ cognition and excellence ” takes the signifier of his ocean trip beyond the Pillars of Hercules, Levi ‘s occurs in his effort to retrieve Dante and instruct Pikolo. Levi ‘s existent journey to the soup waiting line reiterates this hunt for “ religious nutriment ” by linking coincident ends of soup and cognition, reemphasizing the construct of cognition as indispensable to the endurance of the Haftlinge as work forces ” ( 38 ) .

In this manner, literature is a critical component in Levi ‘s endurance and refusal to give up on life, and acts as a agency to let Levi to redefine his environment and his topographic point within it. Alexander observes that “ [ aˆ¦ ] Ulysses ‘ address rendered in Auschwitz can non but bear the imprint of the minute [ aˆ¦ ] Levi rewrites Dante through the prism of the cantonments ” ( 161 ) .

The paradox demonstrated in Levi ‘s remembrance of Dante besides highlights the hurting involved in retrieving scenes from his place life ; he implores Pikolo to “ state something, speak, do non allow me believe of my mountains which used to demo up against the twilight of flushing as I returned by train from Milan to Turin! ” ( If This is a Man 120 ) . Therefore, there is struggle between the joy of reconnecting with his yesteryear through the Dantean text and the desperation of retrieving the outside universe. This parallels the hostility of the presence of Ulysses ‘ Canto in Levi ‘s text: it serves to confirm his human individuality but his faltering remembrance echoes the confusion and finally impossible undertaking of portraying the Holocaust through a narrative model. This aligns with Levi ‘s realisation: “ [ Then ] for the first clip we became cognizant that our linguistic communication lacks words to show this offense, the destruction of a adult male ” ( If This is a Man 32 ) . Reynolds points out Levi ‘s observation that “ ‘our linguistic communication is human, born to depict things at a human degree ‘ and therefore, when faced with the undertaking of depicting the Lager, linguistic communication ‘collapses, falls apart, can non get by ‘ ” ( 52 ) . This enhances Levi ‘s averment that “ if the Lagers had lasted longer a new, rough linguistic communication would hold been born aˆ¦ ” as no bing linguistic communications can adequately depict the horrors of the Lager experience ( If This is a Man 129 ) . Therefore, Reynolds argues,

the complex intertextual webs which produce the comparing between Dante and Levi besides undermine it and in making so show the finally impenetrable nature of the Lager as an existent event, while still defining its presence and significance ( 2 ) .

Literature, so, is important in clarifying the confusion and hostility of life in the cantonments by showing the dichotomy of the captives ‘ being as work forces and “ Haftlinge ” .

Remembering Dante ‘s text is a minor act of rebellion and release for Levi, which gives him great joy and so great hurting. His memoir, in bend, is a critical constituent of the subsister literature that plays a important function in maintaining the narratives alive, lest they be allowed to vanish from societal memory. If This is a Man counters Adorno and Wiesel ‘s claims about Holocaust literature and poesy after Auschwitz by go oning the argument over the rightness of literature as a agency of representation. Levi himself, in The Drowned and the Saved, concluded that “ ground, art and poesy are no aid in decoding a topographic point from which they are banned ” ( 115 ) . Despite this, attests Reynolds, the intertextuality of If This is a Man

supports Young, who argues that despite the insufficiency of any signifier of representation aˆ¦ the method of representation is every bit much portion of a testimony as the events it tries to reproduce: “ how victims and subsisters have grasped and related their experiences compromises the existent nucleus of ‘their narrative ‘ ” ( Reynolds 79 ) .

Therefore, Levi ‘s testimony requires the reader to “ face the complexness of his experience ” and “ offers a representation [ aˆ¦ ] that neither make-believes to be absolute nor shies off from the trouble of representation ” ( Reynolds 84 ) . Rather than cut downing his history to a simple comparing with Dante ‘s Hell or a basic “ lingual representation ” ( Reynolds 78 ) , Levi ‘s authorship demonstrates the complexness and trouble of stand foring existent events through narrative. If This is a Man, so, contests Wiesel ‘s position that there can be no such thing as Holocaust literature: it is indispensable that there is witness testimony of the events to supply histories of such experiences. Narrative is one vehicle that aids this procedure and, as Sharon Portnoff insists, “ [ aˆ¦ ] linguistic communication aˆ¦ is all we have to convey experience ” ( 76 ) .

Ultimately, literature plays a cardinal function in the constitution of Levi ‘s individuality as both captive and subsister of Auschwitz. The significance of the written word is echoed in his irresistible impulse to state his narrative and averment that composing helped him to experience himself once more. The intertextuality in his history “ provides the complication necessary to convey a sense of his experience, while at the same time thwarting any effort to crystallise that experience in linguistic communication ” ( Reynolds 90 ) and reflects the impossibleness of conveying his experiences through the words available to him. Levi observed that “ our linguistic communication lacks words to show this offense ” and the complexness of his mentions to Dante, alongside the ‘Shema ‘ verse form, organize an built-in portion of conveying his experience and in guaranting that his testimony is so heard and retold. If This is a Man highlights the importance of storytelling and literature to our individuality and memory, whilst helping as a reminder that words entirely can non capture the extent of the horrors endured by the cantonment captives. Levi ‘s testimony reminds us that we are free to read his words ; we are afforded the luxury of contemplation and reading that is at odds with the urgency of Levi ‘s demand to enter his narrative. While no written portraiture or literary comparing of the Holocaust can adequately clarify the experiences of the captives, this does non, in my sentiment, mean that the Holocaust should be shied off from as a literary topic. To make so is to cut down the importance and likeliness of retrieving ; to try to ‘close off ‘ the topic from active scruples would merely help the cause of the deniers and, for illustration, the SS work forces who taunted captives that “ none of you will be left to bear informant, but even if person were to last, the universe would non believe him ” ( Preface to The Drowned and the Saved ) . Levi ‘s narrative, and the narratives of those who survived, should non be allowed to vanish from memory. Not merely can at that place be poesy and literature about and after Auschwitz, it is imperative that there is.