Primo Levi: luci e ombre

Abstract

The article lists the significant occurrences of the twofold element of light and darkness in Primo Levi’s published works. After a methodological introduction, which highlights premises and purposes of this starting research, the article provides an overview following an order by literary genre: poetry, narrative, essay writing. The last chapter lists the relevant occurrences of the “gray” colour in the edited books before I Sommersi e I salvati, in order to identify a possible birthplace of the well-known notion “gray zone” and to detect Levi’s earlier use of the gray colour as an attribute of moral ambiguity.