Narrating survival in Primo Levi's If this is a man, and The drowned and the saved

No Thumbnail Available

Date

2008-08-19T10:05:23Z

Authors

Collopen, Leigh-Ann Mary

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Abstract

Abstract This research report explores the process of narrating survival in Primo Levi’s If This Is A Man and The Drowned and The Saved. The central objective is to understand the process of psychological survival is narrated in Levi’s autobiographical narrative. To this end, I have used a psychoanalytical framework to understand the traumatic impact of Auschwitz on subjectivity as well as to position subjectivity in relation to autobiographical narrative. I shall argue that the trauma of Auschwitz resulted in an eroded and shattered subjectivity and that narrative offers a space in which the reconstruction of that subjectivity can be negotiated.

Description

Keywords

narrating survival, Primo Levi, Lacanian theory, subjectivity, historical trauma, autobiographical narrative

Citation

Collections

Endorsement

Review

Supplemented By

Referenced By