Playing with Speculative Bodies and Minds: Moral Imagination at Work in Primo Leviâs Science Fiction

Marzia Beltrami

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Chapter 16 Playing with Speculative Bodies and Minds: Moral Imagination at Work in Primo Leviâs Science Fiction

In: Poetics of Disturbances

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Marzia Beltrami

Marzia Beltrami
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 320â342

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004519886_018

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Abstract

The proposed contribution discusses the hypothesis that representations of embodiment â that is the irreducible interdependence between the material characteristics of the body and the forms of knowledge, subjectivity and intersubjectivity that ensue â play a central role in Primo Leviâs science-fiction narrative.

The fact that Primo Levi, who is pre-eminently known for his testimonial writing in relation to Holocaust literature, should deliberately resort to science fiction to explore questions concerning the limits of science demonstrates the ethical and epistemological value he ascribed to imagination. In his two short-story collections (Storie naturali [Natural Histories], 1966 and Vizio di forma [Flaw of Form], 1971), Levi chose fiction as a privileged mode of writing and his fantastic speculations are not to be understood as either allegories or parodies. In fact, to play with the biological and physical features of his impossible characters â either through the intervention of futuristic technologies or by fantastically manipulating them â allows Levi to test the consequences that such changes have on the way characters think and, importantly, relate to others and the world around them. While these body-mind configurations may be impossible, the condition of embodiment Levi aims to explore remains verisimilar.

Leviâs operation revolves crucially around the cognitive and ethical disturbance stemming from the anomalous or utterly impossible bodies and minds that populates his tales. Drawing on cognitive and unnatural narratology as well as on insights from Liesbeth Korthals Altesâ work on narrative ethics, the essay will analyse these body-mind representations and the narrative strategies employed to construct the complex authorial ethos and the estranging yet relatable reading experience designed in Leviâs science-fiction stories.

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Poetics of Disturbances

Narratives of Non-normative Bodies and Minds

Series:Â Narratives and Mental Health, Volume: 2

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004519886

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 24 Oct 2024

Subjects
- Biology
  - Psychology
  - Interdisciplinary Sciences
- Literature and Cultural Studies
  - Literature, Arts & Science
  - English & Anglophone

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Chapter 16 Playing with Speculative Bodies and Minds: Moral Imagination at Work in Primo Leviâs Science Fiction

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Poetics of Disturbances

Narratives of Non-normative Bodies and Minds

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Chapter 16 Playing with Speculative Bodies and Minds: Moral Imagination at Work in Primo Leviâs Science Fiction