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Hybrid forms in Italian literature on the HolocaustThe essay presents a survey of the field of Italian-language Holocaust literature from the early postwar years to the present. It notes the parallel emergence of the two major axes of Holocaust writing, testimony and fiction, and describes the tensions and similarities between them. It then challenges the model for understanding Holocaust literature that is dominated by these two genres. The essay suggests that from the earliest written responses to the Shoah and with an increasing variety and power in recent decades, the prevalent modes of Italian Holocaust literature have been unstable hybrids. Each of these hybrids has reflected both the difficulty and the malleability of the Shoah as subject matter when it is transposed into language. While creative writers have often attempted these hybrids, Holocaust survivor-writers have also created hybrids in their search for supplementary forms to add to their primary testimonial efforts. In this as in so many other areas of Italian Holocaust culture, Primo Levi is a paradigmatic figure. This essay explores these issues one by one using four instances of hybrid forms where Holocaust literature intersects with reportage, allegory, genre-fiction and historiography.