Despertencimento, rememoração, suspensão: leituras de Jean Améry, Imre Kertész e Primo Levi

Abstract

This work deals with aspects related to “testimony” by the approach of the works of three writers, three survivors of the Shoah: Jean Améry, Imre Kertész and Primo Levi. It starts from the perception of the “rupture” of an ethical, aesthetic and epistemological nature promoted by the inscription of testimony in literature (Coquio and Seligmann-Silva) and, from the mobilization of the concepts of “unbelonging” (Bouchereau), “remembrance” (Benjamin) and “suspension” (Kertész), it aims to address issues considered relevant for the study of the works of each of the three authors and, in general, to the testimonial literature. In the first part of this thesis, it is proposed the elaboration of reflections from the concept of “unbelonging”, with the objective of thinking about the subjective condition from which Améry, Kertész and Levi write their works. In the second part of the text, based on the concept of “remembrance”, a discussion about the motivations of these writers for writing their experiences in the Nazi concentration and extermination camps is proposed. In the third part of the work, we seek to discuss, based on the concept of “suspension”, the thematic and formal particularities of the works of Améry, Kertész and Levi, who throughout their literary and intellectual careers transited through different literary genres – essay, journalistic article, autobiography, diary, short story, novel and poetry – with the aim of finding the appropriate form for their testimonies about the Shoah.