Exploring the Legacy of Primo Levi
An international conference commemorating the
25th anniversary of Primo Levi's death
Edge Hill University
Friday and Saturday, July 6 and 7, 2012
Confirmed keynote speakers
Norman Geras, Professor Emeritus, University of
Manchester, and author of The Contract of Mutual
Indifference: Political Philosophy After the
Holocaust.
Robert S.C. Gordon, Reader in Modern Italian
Culture and Fellow of Gonville and Caius
College, University of Cambridge, and author of
Primo Levi's Ordinary Virtues: from testimony to
ethics.
Anthony Rudolf, Fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature, and author of At an Uncertain Hour:
Primo Levi's War against Oblivion.
Paul Salmons, Head of Curriculum and Development
at the Holocaust Education Development Project,
Institute of Education.
Judith Woolf, Senior Lecturer in English and
Italian at the University of York, author of The
Memory of the Offence.
PRIMO LEVI
Primo Levi (1919-1987) was born and lived his
entire life in or near Turin, with the exception
of the years 1944-45, when he was captured as an
anti-fascist partisan, deported to Auschwitz,
and then released into war-torn Europe. After
liberation, with 'a torrent of things to tell
the civilised world' and 'the tattooed number on
my arm burning like a sore' he wrote a series of
remarkable books, including If This is a Man,
The Periodic Table, and The Drowned and the
Saved. He is now viewed as not only one of the
key literary figures of the twentieth century
and one of the most important survivor-writers
of the Holocaust, but for many he is an ethical
writer of great depth and even a subtle and
humane 'political philosopher'.
Although he famously asked his readers not to
treat him as a 'prophet, oracle, or seer,' Primo
Levi also suspected that there was 'a sort of
wisdom that seeps through from my books which I
don't feel within myself.' What sort of wisdom
do we find in Levi and how can we critically
appropriate his legacy without encouraging what
Bryan Cheyette has called 'reductive discourses
which have engulfed Levi's life and work' and
risk turning him into a 'saint-like figure'?
PROPOSALS
We welcome proposals for 20-minute papers or for
conference panels on any aspect of Levi's legacy
and from any discipline – including Literature,
Cultural Studies, Political Philosophy, Ethics,
Educational Studies, Social Theory, History and
Holocaust studies. Topics are not limited to,
but may include:
• Levi and Ethics
• Levi and Memory / Story-Telling
• Levi and the Holocaust
• Levi and the 'Two Cultures'
• Levi and Work, Levi and Friendship
• Levi and Writing
• Levi and Language
• Levi and Violence and War
• Levi and Holocaust Education
• Levi and Philosophy after the Holocaust
• Levi and Humanism
• Representations and Receptions
Please send a 500-word abstract (max.) of your
paper and a short CV by 1 February, 2012 to
Professor Alan Johnson,
johnsona@edgehill.ac.uk. The conference will be
followed by a call for papers for an edited
collection of essays on Levi's work.
Conference website
http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/events/2012/07/06/primo-levi-conference
Conference team
Dr Arthur Chapman, Reader in the Faculty of
Education
Tel: 01695 657 189, E-mail:
arthur.chapman@edgehill.ac.uk.
Prof. Alan Johnson, Professor of Democratic
Theory and Practice
Tel: 01695 650 976, E-mail:
johnsona@edgehill.ac.uk
Dr Minna Vuohelainen, Senior Lecturer in English
Literature
Tel: 01695 584 363, E-mail:
minna.vuohelainen@edgehill.ac.uk
Enquiries: johnsona@edgehill.ac.uk
Web address:
http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/events/2012/07/06/primo-levi-conference
Sponsored by: Edge Hill University
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