Modern Language Review

Abstract:

This article analyses Primo Levi's Se questo è un uomo as literary artefact, first examining his creation of internal chronological dimensions (e.g. through narrative structure and the use of verb tenses) in a process defined as ‘chronopoiesis'. A further aspect of temporality is then identified as ‘exotemporality’, connected with a dimension of ineffability, whereby the text is projected towards the reader's own time. A link is established between Levi's condition as victim, witness, and writer and the decision to discharge his duty of testimony through a narrative account sustained by an entire literary tradition, in particular Dante's Divina commedia.