On September 4th, 2020, we had the honor and pleasure of having a guest speaker: Professor Nancy Harrowitz, who was gracious enough to allow us to share a recording of his presentation.
Professor Harrowitz discussed the two best known Italian Jewish authors, Primo Levi and Giorgio Bassani. Levi was known for his insightful and philosophical approach to the Holocaust. A survivor, it became his life’s work to inform others of the dangers of Nazism and totalitarianism, and his memoir of the time he spent in the concentration camp, Survival in Auschwitz, is one of the two best known works on the Shoah. Giorgio Bassani, author of The Garden of the Finzi-Contini, was not a Holocaust survivor, yet his works are also important in their unflinching look at the Fascist regime in Italy and its role in the anti-Semitism that led to deportations.
Professor Nancy Harrowitz is Professor of Italian and Jewish studies at Boston University. Her most recent work includes articles on Primo Levi, Giorgio Bassani, and Carlo Levi, and she published a book in 2017 entitled Primo Levi and the Identity of a Survivor. At Boston University, she teaches courses on modern Italian literature, film and literature produced under fascism, and representations of the Holocaust in literature and film. She directs the new minor in Holocaust, Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Boston University.
Click here to buy Nancy Harrowitz’ books from an independent bookstore near you.
Watch a recording of her presentation:
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