Primo Levi as storyteller: The uses of fiction, creative non-fiction and the hard to classify in Levi’s narrative of the Holocaust.

Abstract

The varied forms of short prose writing used by Primo Levi in his continued narrative of the Holocaust allows a reconsideration of him as not merely its witness, but also as its storyteller. Taking The Periodic Table ([1975] 1986) as a conscious shift in Levi’s writing direction this article examines where the fictional developments and memory collide, and attempts to assess if this produces a more memorable format in order to reveal a difficult history. Do we continue to read Levi because his honesty is greater than the bare facts, and is there such a thing as a Holocaust aesthetic?