A tabela periódica, de Primo Levi: um escritor entre dois ofícios

Abstract

Drawing from the dialogue between literature and science, the present dissertation investigates key elements of the narrative written by Primo Levi (1919-1987) in the book The Periodic Table, which was acclaimed by the Royal Institution of Great Britain as the best science book ever written. In addition to being a compendium of chemical elements, the book is also regarded as an archive of the writer’s reminiscences, which include stories with a more essayistic character, and others with a more narrative and memorialist one. Levi’s traumatic experience in Auschwitz and his scientific knowledge permeate the whole book, which uses the encyclopaedia model to explore the writer’s fragmentary memories. The scrutiny takes into account the relation between Levi’s two occupations, chemist and writer, in the book The Periodic Table, first published in 1975, the year Levi retired from the chemical industry to dedicate himself exclusively to literature. The present work underscores subjects related to the encyclopaedic novel, the collector's venture, and the memory of Shoah, a major experience for the survivor narrative. In this perspective, the aim is to contribute to the understanding of Levi’s work, based on his chemical and artistic operations, and in his construction of molecules and words.