Beyond Memory: Italy and the Holocaust

The interview focuses on a number of themes developed in Robert Gordon’s book The Holocaust in Italian Culture. 1944-2010 (Stanford University Press, 2012). In particular, it deals with the history of Holocaust Studies in Italy and its place in the wider field of Holocaust Studies across the world; the relationship between cultural production and existing notions of collective memory in the cultural reception of the Holocaust and the role of the media in its memorialization; it discusses the place of Primo Levi’s work in shaping the interpretation of the Holocaust in Italy; finally, it deals with issues of language and translation in transferring conceptualizations of the Holocaust across cultures. Ultimately, Robert Gordon’s book uses the Italian case to engage in a wider reflection on Holocaust Studies and offers a contribution to a rethinking and redefinition of the field.