Abstract
This paper analyzes two parallel and opposed testimonies of mass annihilation in World War II: Primo Levi’s report of his gruesome experiences in Auschwitz, in The Drowned and the Saved; the testimony of the fire-bombing of Dresden, that killed 130,000 civilians in 1945, recorded by a young American POW, private Kurt Vonnegut Jr, in his novel Slaughterhouse-five. It is basically structured along the phases of the historiographic operation proposed by Paul Ricoeur – testimony and recording of testimonies; questioning of the records and written historical representation of the past – with the objective of drawing conclusions about the role of literature in keeping alive memories that might prevent further atrocities. Steppingstones include the urge to bear witness, the paradoxical links between victims and perpetrators and the choice of literary genders to convey messages. References are made to René Girard’s concept of the scapegoat mechanism as an explanation for the eruption of violence in social groups.
Highlights
In The Drowned and the Saved (1988), Primo Levi (1919-1987) bequeaths humanity a disturbing eyewitness account of the violence exercised against human beings in Nazi concentration camps during World War II
Testimonies of the murder of millions of human beings in the Lagers, and the absurd destruction of a defenceless town and around 130,000 of its inhabitants ought to be preserved at all costs, whether they are believed or not. Starting from this premise this paper analyzes how the two witnesses construct their testimonies from the lived experience itself, how they overcome the questioning of their testimonies and, their choice of a literary form as written archive. These analytical objectives correspond to the three phases of the historiographic operation which Paul Ricoeur (2007) recognizes in the epistemology of the historical sciences: 1) testimony and record of testimonies; 2) questioning of the records; 3) written historical representation of the past
Primo Levi states that he entered the Lager as a nonbeliever and lived as a nonbeliever after his liberation
Summary
In The Drowned and the Saved (1988), Primo Levi (1919-1987) bequeaths humanity a disturbing eyewitness account of the violence exercised against human beings in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Testimonies of the murder of millions of human beings in the Lagers, and the absurd destruction of a defenceless town and around 130,000 of its inhabitants ought to be preserved at all costs, whether they are believed or not Starting from this premise this paper analyzes how the two witnesses construct their testimonies from the lived experience itself, how they overcome the questioning of their testimonies and, their choice of a literary form as written archive. These analytical objectives correspond to the three phases of the historiographic operation which Paul Ricoeur (2007) recognizes in the epistemology of the historical sciences: 1) testimony and record of testimonies; 2) questioning of the records; 3) written historical representation of the past.. It is possible that similar experiences will be discussed under different headings, in view of our objective of verifying how historical atrocities, which transcend human imagination, can be translated into literary texts of divergent genres written as warnings for coming generations
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