Synopses & Reviews
This book explores the extraordinary depth of Levi the ethical writer across his entire oeuvre, by way of thirteen so-called "ordinary virtues"--the ways and means Levi forges for practically and compassionately engaging with the world. It draws on a wide range of recent thinking about
Holocaust literature and the general relationship between literature and ethics.
Synopsis
This book explores the extraordinary depth of Levi the ethical writer across his entire oeuvre, by way of thirteen so-called "ordinary virtues"--the ways and means Levi forges for practically and compassionately engaging with the world. It draws on a wide range of recent thinking about Holocaust literature and the general relationship between literature and ethics.
Table of Contents
Abreviations
Introduction: Beyond Testimony
I: The Ethical Turn
1. Looking
2. Memory
3. Discretion, or Language and Silence
4. Uses
II: Wit, or Practical Intelligence
5. Measure, or a Sense of Limit
6. Practice, or Trial and Error
7. Perspective, or Looking Again
8. Invention, or First Things
III: Community
9. Common Sense
10. Friendship
11. Storytelling
IV: Diversions
12. Irony, or Wit Revisited
13. Play
Bibliography
Index