Primo Levi. Isola di ragione per un presente travagliato

I sommersi e i salvati represents the culmination of a long period of reflection which, triggered by Levi’s experiences in the Auschwitz camp, develops into an analysis of human behaviour in extreme situations. More than a mere account of deportation, the book addresses issues concerning society as a whole: how memory is constructed, transmitted, obscured and manipulated; the forms violence can take; the relationship between victims and perpetrators; and the role language plays in the struggle for life.
Questions which, four decades on, have become, if possible, even more pressing.

The series adopts an interdisciplinary approach. A political philosopher, a cognitive psychologist, a literary scholar and a legal scholar will offer four different perspectives on four central themes of the work, demonstrating how dialogue between different fields of knowledge can suggest new ways of interpreting it.

The four events will be:

- Thursday 26 November: in Cremona, in the Aula Magna of Palazzo Raimondi, home to the Department of Musicology and Cultural Heritage at the University of Pavia, where Simona Forti (Professor of Political Philosophy at the Scuola Normale Superiore) will give a lecture entitled «Esiste una violenza utile?».

- Monday 30 November: in Pavia, in the Aula Foscolo at the University, where, following the official welcome by the Rector, Alessandro Reali, Tomaso Vecchi (Professor of Cognitive and Experimental Psychology at the University of Pavia) will explore the theme of memory in the session «La memoria è uno strumento meraviglioso ma fallace».

- Wednesday 2 December: in Pavia, in the Aula Volta at the University, where Robert Gordon (Serena Professor of Italian, University of Cambridge) will reflect on language in his talk «L’uso delle parole era caduto in disuso».

- Tuesday 15 December: at the Ghislieri College in Pavia, where Sergio Seminara (Professor of Criminal Law at the University of Pavia) will discuss the relationship between victim, fault and liability in a talk entitled «La condizione di offeso non esclude la colpa».

The events are aimed at the university community, the general public, secondary school teachers and pupils, and admission is free. The aim is to provide opportunities for in-depth exploration and debate, following in the footsteps of one of the great works of 20th-century European thought.

With the support of the Fondazione Cariplo, the City of Pavia, the City of Cremona and the Collegio Ghislieri in Pavia. The organisation of this series of events forms part of the teaching programme for the PhD programmes in Literary and Musical Text Studies and in Public Law, Criminal Justice and International Law at the University of Pavia.