Description:

Close Reading of a Title: On Primo Levi’s Survival In Auschwitz

Maria Anna Mariani
Assistant Professor of Modern Italian Literature
University of Chicago

For many years in the United States, Primo Levi’s first book was known by the title Survival in Auschwitz, rather than the Italian original If This Is a Man. This talk will interrogate the meaning behind this unfaithful, but also symptomatic translation. How did this new title contribute to the extraordinary success of the work and in what way did the word “survival” condition its reception? What does it mean to survive not only in Auschwitz, but also after Auschwitz? Most importantly, can the two titles shed light on each other, forcing us to ask: is this a life?