Encountering Primo Levi

Primo Levi’s development as a writer was expressed through multiple literary genres and an increasing awareness of his readers over the course of his forty-year writing career. With a focus on memory and trauma, this book explores how narrative acts as a means of telling a story and engaging others in the transmission of that story, thus developing a literary lineage over time that can transcend geographic and cultural boundaries. As the witness to catastrophic historical events, Levi’s writing offers a space to consider what it means to be a reader of traumatic literature. The process of how books affect and change us is explored through a close reading of Levi’s works alongside related writers and the historical contexts in which they lived.

Cheryl Chaffin is a Professor of English Composition, Literature, and Creative Writing at Cabrillo College, USA. She previously published After Poland: A Memoir Because of Primo Levi.