Literature and Human Rights in If This A Man by Primo Levi

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the relationship between literature and human rights considering Antonio Candido's ideas in the text O direito à literatura (The right to literature) and the work of Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz: If this is a Man, published as a testimony of the experience in the concentration camps during the World War II. The analysis initially focuses on the presence of the literary text, specifically the Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri, in the mind of the Italian prisoner, in order to understand the humanizing power of literature, which is fundamental even in dark times. Not only the content of the speech, but also the form engendered by the poet are seen as significant in the humanization process set in motion by literature. The paper will also examine the issue of promotion of human rights by the literary work of Levi, that denounces the horrors to which thousands of men underwent, in an attempt to prevent events like this from recurring in future generations.