«Meditate that this came about». The dialogue, a way to a public reflection on the Shoah

Abstract

Dialogue represents for Levi his chosen strategy to deal with the Shoah, both on a personal and on a public level: not only it plays a major role in his survival and his coping with the experience and characterizes his personal and literary contact to other survivors and scholars of the Shoah, it also distinguishes his relationship with his readers and society in general, whom Levi wishes to bring to a greater awareness and reflection. To reach this goal Levi relies on the characteristics that typify dialogue, like the active participation of both speakers, the exchange of opinions, the conservation of rationality and of the topicality of the subject, to involve his readers and society in general in a reflection on the Shoah and to face the obstacles to its realization, like the incredulity and indifference of post-war society or the denial of the Shoah.