Memory, Catastrophe and Narratives of Pain: Primo Levi, Riobaldo and The Ghosts in the Experience of Trauma

Abstract

This article discusses the narrative of pain and trauma in witness and fictional works, taking as object of analysis memorialistic texts of the Italian writer Primo Levi, a survivor of the Nazi concentration camps, and Guimarães Rosa’s novel Grande Sertão: Veredas [The Devil to Pay in the Backlands], especially the memories described by its protagonist Riobaldo Tatarana. Therefore, we propose a multidisciplinary approach, with theoretical scopes of narrative and knowledge about affection and memory, taking into perspective the phantasmatic figures that these texts bring. The correspondences and approximations between the discourses in analysis reveal effective bonds that unite them, provided they are read under horizons that amplify their messages, redefine their contours and engage in symbolic encounters that enrich the perception of the production of the investigated authors.