Mariotti, Carole <br/><br/>
Primo Levi and the Chemistry of the Word: the Pain of the Witness, “Pure Pain” 

 -  2016.<br/>							 
<br/><br/> 99 
<br/><br/> In Se questo è un uomo (If This is a Man) Primo Levi describes the conditions that bring a man to be dehumanized, and the Muselmann stage (psychiatric stupor) becomes the ultimate figure of dehumanisation. The very title of the book can be understood as a question the Nazis imposed on mankind. By reifying the person, by reducing man to waste matter, he will have to answer this question himself: “If this thing is me then can I consider myself as a man?” To this extent the function of the lager (camp) is based on all the mechanisms that lead to shame; from here the best hope is doubt, the worst result would be the loss of humanity and thus the very death of subjectivity. In his recurrent Auschwitz nightmare Levi describes the indifference of those close to him and that of the rest of the world. The impossible reconstruction of any kind of link via a narrative brings Levi to confront what he calls “pure pain.” How could the written word define or enclose what Levi calls his “fracture” of meaning and of the capacity to relate to others? Faced with the Auschwitz nightmare, the repeated desolation of being and the surge of concentration camp solitude, Levi seeks words, his words. Only letters and words can help define emptiness. Certain children know how to play where nothing exists. It may be a capability that belongs to children, painters, poets, or writers to make something out of nothing! At least, in the very place where others would see nothing…