Primo Levi and the testimony literature: a (in)definition

Abstract

This article proposes Primo Levi's “literature” as a confluence/litigation “zone” in
which disparate and paradoxical categories clash/contradict and produce reading effects, many of
them supported by the (im)possibilities of representing life in concentration camps. Without the
intention to cover all his Works, it is suggested that the testimony can be read as a “between”, as
a locus in which dualities such as the sublime and the abject, experiences and expectations; the
past and the present; the conventions and the unprecedented; the here and the beyond can
befound/tensioned.