Overview

Motherhood, Fatherland and Primo Levi: The Hidden Groundwork of Agency in his Auschwitz Writings offers major new insights into the political dimensions of Levi’s thought by using those texts conventionally thought to be marginal to his oeuvre (i.e., his short works of science fiction and fantasy and his World War Two partisan novel) to deepen our understanding of the lessons he offered in his more well-known and celebrated texts, Survival in Auschwitz and The Drowned and the Saved. Typically cast as one of the most profound theorists of what human beings at their worst can do to one another, Levi appears in this book as (in addition) a theorist who affirms a politics of active and broad participation in republican institutions as an important means of achieving a fulfilled human life. This book reinterprets Levi’s political significance by bringing to bear two literatures that have been previously missing from scholarly considerations of Levi’s legacy: psychologically-informed analyses of how infantile and toddler experience of, and relationship to, a primary caretaker shape later perceptions of self and relationship and studies of Machiavelli’s variant of republican thought in which major emphasis is placed on founding institutions of civic participation that develop responsible political leaders and foster good citizenship. In the aftermath of the so-called Arab Spring, which has given rise to people acting on their worst impulses (ethnic cleansing, genocide) as well as on their best (revolution, democratic constitutionalism), Levi’s legacy, considered more comprehensively, can be a valuable touchstone for understanding the democratic possibilities of a world undergoing rapid political change. Avoiding academic jargon and entanglement in hyper-specialized academic debates, Motherhood, Fatherland and Primo Levi offers that comprehensive understanding to scholars across many fields (Italian studies, political theory, cultural studies, women’s studies, Holocaust studies, history) as well as to general interest readers of a humanistic bent and citizens concerned to make sense of this revolutionary age.

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9781683930877

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Reviews

Recent US scholarship on Levi (1919-87) has shifted from concentrating on his Auschwitz experience to focusing on the whole of his life and on his lesser works. In this sense Pirro's study of agency complements Nancy Harrowitz's Primo Levi and the Identity of a Survivor (CH, Jul'17, 54-5068). Like Harrowitz, Pirro (political science and international studies, Georgia Southern Univ.) examines Levi's peripheral writings, looking closely at the science-fiction/fantasy stories and Levi's single novel, If Not Now, When? (1984). Pirro's analysis of this novel constitutes the heart and soul of his book. He concentrates on the behavior of the two leading characters, representatives of Levi's alter-ego, in their fight against Fascism as members of a band of Jewish partisans. Pirro bases his interpretation of the novel on insights into human agency in the writings of Machiavelli and Arendt. Pirro finds a unifying concept that reveals the foundation of Levi's world view: i.e., all Levi's works-whether they relate to the horror of Auschwitz, the brutality of war, or the tyranny of immoral leaders-reveal a belief that humane social solidarity is a higher value than individual concerns, that the preservation of humanity and the prevention of despotism require that one think of oneself more as a social being than as an autonomous individual. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE * Robert Pirro's nuanced readings of Primo Levi's lesser known fictive works serve to enlarge the possible meanings of Levi's testimonial writings. He compellingly reconstructs the theories of agency at work in Levi's fiction and shows how they are intimately connected to his political thought and to his testimony. Pirro's original analysis demonstrates the relevance of topics not usually discussed in Levi's work, including family dynamics and political yearnings, and makes the reader realize how persuasively central they are to Levi's thought. -- Nancy Harrowitz, Associate Professor of Italian, Department of Romance Languages, Boston University, and author of Primo Levi and the Identity of a Survivor (2016)

Recent US scholarship on Levi (1919–87) has shifted from concentrating on his Auschwitz experience to focusing on the whole of his life and on his lesser works. In this sense Pirro’s study of agency complements Nancy Harrowitz’s Primo Levi and the Identity of a Survivor (CH, Jul'17, 54-5068). Like Harrowitz, Pirro (political science and international studies, Georgia Southern Univ.) examines Levi’s peripheral writings, looking closely at the science-fiction/fantasy stories and Levi's single novel, If Not Now, When? (1984). Pirro’s analysis of this novel constitutes the heart and soul of his book. He concentrates on the behavior of the two leading characters, representatives of Levi’s alter-ego, in their fight against Fascism as members of a band of Jewish partisans. Pirro bases his interpretation of the novel on insights into human agency in the writings of Machiavelli and Arendt. Pirro finds a unifying concept that reveals the foundation of Levi’s world view: i.e., all Levi's works—whether they relate to the horror of Auschwitz, the brutality of war, or the tyranny of immoral leaders—reveal a belief that humane social solidarity is a higher value than individual concerns, that the preservation of humanity and the prevention of despotism require that one think of oneself more as a social being than as an autonomous individual. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. * CHOICE * Robert Pirro's nuanced readings of Primo Levi’s lesser known fictive works serve to enlarge the possible meanings of Levi’s testimonial writings. He compellingly reconstructs the theories of agency at work in Levi's fiction and shows how they are intimately connected to his political thought and to his testimony. Pirro's original analysis demonstrates the relevance of topics not usually discussed in Levi’s work, including family dynamics and political yearnings, and makes the reader realize how persuasively central they are to Levi’s thought. -- Nancy Harrowitz, Associate Professor of Italian, Department of Romance Languages, Boston University, and author of Primo Levi and the Identity of a Survivor (2016)

Author Information

Robert Pirro is a professor in the Department of Political Science and International Studies at Georgia Southern University.

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