Saving the Self from Stories: Resistance to Narrative in Primo Levi’s The Periodic Table

Abstract

ABSTRACT:What if we aren’t just the stories we tell about ourselves? What if our identity also involves something beyond any possible narrative—something, indeed, that needs protecting from narrative? If so, then it might seem as though a sequential account of our memories is beside the point; yet under some circumstances, surprisingly, a sequential account of our memories is precisely what protects us best. That’s arguably what The Periodic Table does for Primo Levi: while this stunningly unusual generic hybrid preserves the full force and magnitude of Levi’s experience in the camps, it also situates that experience on the same level as other events, thus preventing it from taking over completely. Rather than giving us, through content, the story of Levi’s life, its main function is to express, through form, the depths of his character, something that remains constant across all circumstances. It thus represents a heroic refusal on Levi’s part to let the Holocaust define him, to let others deprive him of his individuality, to let the diachronic dominate. It saved his self from stories. Did it also, perhaps, keep him alive a little longer?