Primo Levi's "The Truce", Part 1: The Thaw: The Many Meanings of 'Truce'

Episode Topic: The Thaw: The Many Meanings of 'Truce'

The Truce, written in 1962, takes up where If This is a Man left off, recounting Primo Levi’s epic journey on trains, on foot, and on horse-and-cart, as he makes his way across war-scarred Europe from liberated Auschwitz back to Turin. But it is also a psychological journey from disenchantment to re-enchantment, from imprisonment to freedom, from the Nazi “cult of emptiness” to a celebration of human difference and vitality. The “Truce” of the title has several meanings: the literal end of the war, the strange in-between world after the horror has ended but ordinary life has yet begun, and the temporary suspension of moral judgement required to move forward.

Featured Speakers: 

• Barry McCrea, Professor of English, Donald R. Keough Family Professor of Irish Studies, Concurrent Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures, Concurrent Professor of Irish Language and Literature, University of Notre Dame

Read this episode's recap over on the University of Notre Dame's open online learning community platform, ThinkND: go.nd.edu/0c27bd.

This podcast is a part of the Rome Book Club ThinkND Series titled “Primo Levi's ‘The Truce’”.

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