The point of time: structures of temporality in Primo Levi’s Se questo è un uomo

The article, whilst aknowledging that Se questo è un uomo demands to be read for reasons and in ways that are not exclusively or predominantly aesthetic, analyzes the work as a literary artifact. This is done in the first instance by examining the various ways (narrative structure, usage of verbal tenses, thematic mention of temporal characteristics) in which internal chronological dimensions are created, connected among themselves and communicated in the process defined as "chronopoiesis". A further aspect of temporality is then identified as "exotemporality", which is structurally connectd with a dimension of ineffability: this is the projection of the text toward the (external) time of the reader. Both processes are regarded as intrinsic to the constitution and functioning of the literary text in general; a necessary link is established between Primo Levi's condition as victim, witness and writer and his choice to discharge his self-imposed duty of testimony by means of a narrative account sustained by an entire literary tradition, and, more specifically, powered by the poetic and heuristic energy emanating from Dante's Divine comedy