Traumatic Memory And Its Writing

Primo Levi is a Italian writer,who is regarded as the national treasure of Italy.As a survivor of the massacre during the Second World War,he resorts his traumatic memory of "Auschwitz" to his article.Levi's work reconstructs not only his actual personal traumatic experience,but also the traumatic experience of the entire Jewish group.In his works,the exhibition of this traumatic experience can have both depth and breadth.He deeply analyzes human nature with his calm tone and keen observation.Furthermore,he tries to wake people in the post-disaster era with words as a weapon to make them realize the existence of disaster.This paper includes three main parts,the introduction,the body part and the conclusion.The introduction part defines the concept of trauma and traumatic memory,and summarizes Levi's life and his literary works.At the same time,this paper briefly introduces the research results of Levi from foreign and domestic aspects.The paper consists three chapters.In Chapter One,Levi's Auschwitz traumatic experience is revealed in multiple dimensions.The paper divides the traumatic experience into three levels: the trauma in individual survival dimension,the trauma in national survival dimension,and the trauma in human civilization and moral dimension.The paper attempts to expose the depth and width of Levi's traumatic experience from these three levels.In the second chapter,the discussion is mainly carried out from the unique perspective of Levi in his writing about the traumatic memory.Based on the Levi's text,his writing technique is analyzed to explore the rich ethic connotation and moral implication behind the technique.In Chapter Three,detailed analysis is conducted on the value and limitation of traumatic memory based on personal,historical and witness ethics.The paper contends that,to some extent,traumatic memory writing is a kind of inner need for the individual with traumatic experience,which is a cure for the survivor with survival trauma and condolence for the dead.Meanwhile,traumatic writing is also of important value to preserve historical facts and correct the historical records.Moreover,even though the traumatic writing of the survivor is of important witness value,there still exists certain limitation.The paper mainly responses from two levels: the witness' s own perspective and the “indifference” encountered by the witness,in order to present the ethnic dilemma for the witness writing of the traumatic memory.Levi chooses a brave but difficult way when facing the disaster.He bears not only the responsibilities for those killed people,but also a warning to future generations.Relying on the traumatic memories of himself and the Jewish group,he thinks deeply about the evil of human nature."Trying to write and hope" is the accurate description for Levi's life.