Universität Innsbruck (Vergleichende Literaturwissenschaft) with the The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Department of Romance and Latin American Studies)
November 17-19, 2015 – Claudiasaal – Herzog-Friedrich-Str. 3/2, Innsbruck, Contacts: aiani@uibk.ac.at, italienzentrum@uibk.ac.at
This conference delves into the complex relationship between testimony, storytelling and being-towards-death in the writings of Primo Levi. The reserved Jewish chemist and antifascist partisan from Turin is not only one of the most important writers of twentieth-century Italian literature, but also one of the most lucid witnesses of the Shoah.
Program
Tuesday, November 17, 2015, 6:00 – 6:30 pm
Welcome:
Tilmann Märk (Rector, Universität Innsbruck) and Sebastian Donat (Dean of the Faculty of Comparative Literature)
Introduction:
Manuela Consonni (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and Federico Italiano (Universität Innsbruck)
6:30 – 7:30 pm Chair: Robert Gordon (University of Cambridge)
Anna Foa (University of Rome, La Sapienza)
Oggi è tornato il giovane Primo: The Memory of the Turinese Jews
Wednesday, November 18, 2015
First Session: Tradition
10:00 am – 1:00 pm Chair: Michael Rössner (University of Munich / Austrian Academy of
Sciences)
Domenico Scarpa (International Primo Levi Studies Center, Turin)
In Another Language: Primo Levi’s First Time
Iris Milner (University of Tel Aviv)
A Dream Within a Dream: Liminal Reality and Performance in La tregua
Martina Mengoni (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa)
Finally. Reading I sommersi e i salvati
Second Session: Translation
2:30 – 4:00 pm Chair: Uri Cohen (University of Tel Aviv)
Robert Gordon (University of Cambridge)
Metaphors of Creativity in Primo Levi
Michael Rössner (University of Munich / Austrian Academy of Sciences)
Variations of the Fantastic. The Emergence of a Neglected Genre in Primo Levi’s work
4:30 – 6:00 pm Chair: Amos Goldberg (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Uri Cohen (University of Tel Aviv)
Poetry and Autobiography
Federico Italiano (Universität Innsbruck)
Lasciapassare per Babele: Primo Levi’s Translational Mimesis
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Third Session: Transmission
11:00 am – 12:30 pm Chair: Iris Milner (University of Tel Aviv)
Manuela Consonni (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Primo Levi’s Narratological Use of Testimony
Yochai Ataria (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
The Death of the Witness in the Era of Testimony: Primo Levi and Georges Perec
2:30 – 4:00 pm Chair: Domenico Scarpa (International Primo Levi Studies Center, Turin)
Amos Goldberg (Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Primo Levi in Israel
Giuseppe Episcopo (University of Edinburgh)
Broadcasting the Concentrationary Universe: Primo Levi and the Radio
4:30 – 5:30 pm
Discussion: Primo Levi, the West and the Rest
