Primo Levi and Humanism after Auschwitz: Posthumanist Reflections (Italian & Italian American Studies)

184 Pages·2009·1.08 MB·English

by  Jonathan Druker

Italian and Italian American Studies
Stanislao G. Pugliese
Hofstra University
Series Editor
This publishing initiative seeks to bring the latest scholarship in Italian and Italian American
history, literature, cinema, and cultural studies to a large audience of specialists, general
readers, and students. I&IAS will feature works on modern Italy (Renaissance to the present)
and Italian American culture and society by established scholars as well as new voices in the
academy. This endeavor will help to shape the evolving fields of Italian and Italian American
Studies by re-emphasizing the connection between the two. The following editorial board
consists of esteemed senior scholars who act as advisors to the series editor.
REBECCA WEST JOSEPHINE GATTUSO HENDIN
University of Chicago New York University
FRED GARDAPHÉ PHILIP V. CANNISTRARO
Stony Brook University Queens College and the Graduate School,
CUNY
ALESSANDRO PORTELLI MILLICENT MARCUS
Università di Roma “La Sapienza” Yale University
QueerItalia: Same-Sex Desire in Italian Literature and Film
edited by Gary P. Cestaro, July 2004
FrankSinatra: History, Identity, and Italian American Culture
edited by Stanislao G. Pugliese, October 2004
TheLegacyofPrimoLevi
edited by Stanislao G. Pugliese, December 2004
ItalianColonialism
edited by Ruth Ben-Ghiat and Mia Fuller, July 2005
Mussolini’s Rome: Rebuilding the Eternal City
Borden W. Painter Jr., July 2005
RepresentingSaccoandVanzetti
edited by Jerome H. Delamater and Mary Anne Trasciatti, September 2005
CarloTresca: Portrait of a Rebel
Nunzio Pernicone, October 2005

ItalyintheAgeofPinocchio: Children and Danger in the Liberal Era
Carl Ipsen, April 2006
TheEmpireofStereotypes: Germaine de Staël and the Idea of Italy
Robert Casillo, May 2006
RaceandtheNationinLiberalItaly, 1861–1911: Meridionalism, Empire, and Diaspora
Aliza S. Wong, October 2006
WomeninItaly, 1946–1960: An Interdisciplinary Study
edited by Penelope Morris, October 2006
ANewGuidetoItalianCinema
Carlo Celli and Marga Cottino-Jones, November 2006
DebatingDivorceinItaly: Marriage and the Making of Modern Italians, 1860–1974
Mark Seymour, December 2006
HumanNatureinRuralTuscany: An Early Modern History
Gregory Hanlon, March 2007
TheMissingItalianNuremberg: Cultural Amnesia and Postwar Politics
Michele Battini, September 2007
AssassinationsandMurderinModernItaly: Transformations in Society and Culture
edited by Stephen Gundle and Lucia Rinaldi, October 2007
PieroGobettiandthePoliticsofLiberalRevolution
James Martin, December 2008
PrimoLeviandHumanismafterAuschwitz: Posthumanist Reflections
Jonathan Druker, June 2009
Primo Levi and Humanism
after Auschwitz
Posthumanist Reflections
Jonathan Druker
primo levi and humanism after auschwitz
Copyright © Jonathan Druker, 2009.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2009 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a
division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the
United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
Part of Chapter 2 was originally published as “The Shadowed Violence
of Culture: Fascism and the Figure of Ulysses in Primo Levi’s Survival in
Auschwitz,” Clio: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Literature, History, and the
Philosophy of History 33, no. 2 (Winter 2004): 143–61; reprinted with the
permission of Clio.
Part of Chapter 3 was originally published as “Authoritative Testimony and
Authoritarian Discourse in Primo Levi’s Se questo è un uomo,” Italian Culture:
The Journal of the American Association of Italian Studies 19, no. 1 (2001):
41–52; reprinted with the permission of Italian Culture.
Part of Chapter 4 was originally published as “Ethics and Ontology in Primo
Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz: A Levinasian Reading,” Italica 83, nos. 3–4 (2006):
529–42; reprinted with the permission of Italica.
ISBN: 978-1-4039-8433-3
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Druker, Jonathan.
Primo Levi and humanism after Auschwitz : posthumanist reflections /
Jonathan Druker.
p. cm.—(Italian & Italian American studies)
Includes index.
ISBN 978-1-4039-8433-3 (alk. paper)
1. Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)—Influence. 2. Holocaust, Jewish
(1939-1945)—Moral and ethical aspects. 3. Levi, Primo—Criticism and
interpretation. 4. Memory (Philosophy) 5. Humanistic ethics. 6. Philosophy,
Modern. I. Title.
D804.348.D78 2009
940.53'181—dc22 2008043239
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: June 2009
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in the United States of America.
For Lisa
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1 Judaism, Enlightenment, and the End of Theodicy 15
2 The Shadowed Violence of Culture 35
3 Survivor Testimony and the Hegelian Subject 55
4 Ethics and Ontology in Auschwitz and After 71
5 Traumatic History 89
6 The Art of Separation from Chemistry to Racial Science 107
7 The Work of Genocide 119
Conclusion: A New Humanism? 131
Notes 135
Index 167
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Acknowledgments
This book has been a challenge to write and it would not have been finished
without the generous support of institutions, scholars, friends, and family.
I thank the editorial staff at Palgrave Macmillan for seeing it through to
completion. The early stages of the project were nurtured by my colleagues
in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at Illinois State
University, especially Andy Weeks and Jim Reid. I wish to thank them and
also my generous friends on the faculty of the University of Illinois—Har-
riet Murav, Bruce Rosenstock, and Michael Rothberg. In addition, I owe
a special debt of gratitude to Tom Peterson, my former colleague at the
University of Georgia, who offered me encouragement at a crucial moment
in my academic career.
Scholars Nancy Harrowitz, Nick Patruno, Stan Pugliese, and Risa Sodi
have done more than anyone to promote Levi studies in the United States,
and I have been fortunate to participate in conferences and roundtable dis-
cussions they have organized and to publish my work in volumes they have
edited. I wish to thank them for their initiatives and for their constructive
criticism, which has enriched my scholarship.
Institutional support has been vital to the completion of this book.
I thank the College of Arts and Sciences at Illinois State University for
several research grants and express my gratitude to department chairs
Kimberly Nance and Dan Everett for their unflagging support. I am also
obliged to institutions that have facilitated my research by inviting me to
participate in faculty seminars and conferences—these include the United
States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Holocaust Educational Founda-
tion, the Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies at Boston University, and the
American Academy in Rome. I also wish to thank the Fondation Auschwitz

in Brussels, Yad Vashem in Jerusalem, and the Department of Italian at Yale
University for invitations to present my work to colleagues whose com-
ments proved invaluable.
Finally and with the greatest pleasure, I thank Lisa Rosenthal, whose
encouragement, patience, humor and love made it all worthwhile, and also
our children, Jacob and Rosa, for needing a parent that does more than sit
at his desk.