On the reprieve: deconstructive ethics and Primo Levi's 'Moments of Reprieve'. Issue 11 (2nd November 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McAvan, Emily
• Is Part Of: Textual practice. Volume 36:Issue 11(2022)
• Page Start: 1913
• Page End: 1931
• Publication Date: 2022-11-02
• Subjects: Primo Levi -- Emmanuel Levinas -- Jacques Derrida -- Moments of Reprieve -- ethics -- responsibility -- reprieve; Literature, Modern -- 20th century -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Criticism -- Periodicals; Criticism, Textual -- Periodicals; Semiotics -- Periodicals; 801.95
• DOI: 10.1080/0950236X.2021.1970013
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0950-236X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In this article, I discuss Primo Levi's Holocaust survivor testimonies in Moments of Reprieve, arguing that these stories illuminate a concept I term 'the reprieve'. Using the reprieve as an undecidable word I argue that the reprieve is a moment of humanisation in the camps in which our inherent responsibility for one another becomes clear. Though it does not offer freedom or salvation, it does allow for a moment of loosening in the midst of repression and horror.