Primo Levi, Holocaust survivor and renowned memorist, is one of the most widely read writers of post-World War II Italy. his works are characterised by the lean, dispassionate eloquence with which he approaches his experience of incarceration of in Auschwitz. His memoirs - as well as his poetry and fiction and his many interviews - are often taught in several field, including Jewish studies and Holocaust studies, comparative literature, and Italian literature and language, and can enrich the study of history, psychology, and philosophy.
The first part of this volume provides instructors with an overview of the available editions, anthologies, and translations of Levi’s work and identifies other useful classroom aids, such as films, music, and online resources. In the second part, contributors describe different approaches to teaching Levi’s work.
Nicholas Patruno is professor emeritus of Italian at Bryn Mawr College. In addition to his extensive research on Levi, women in the Holocaust, and immigration writers, he has published primarily on nineteenth- and twentieth-century Italian writers, including Giovanni Verga, Elio Vittorini, and Eugenio Montale. He is the author of Language in Giovanni Verga's Early Novels and Understanding Primo Levi, and he has commented on Levi's life and works for NBC's Today Show. Roberta Ricci is associate professor and chair of Italian studies at Bryn Mawr College. She has published on philological issues connected with the varianti d'autore, paratextuality, commentary, reception, readership, and authorship, in reference to the manuscript tradition of early modern Italian literature and the Latin elegy. She is the author of Scrittura, riscrittura, autoesegesi: Voci autoriali intorno all'epica in volgare: Boccaccio, Tasso and is working on a book on Florentine humanism.