Reading Primo Levi on "hybridity" in the context of South Africa: Moving towards humanizing descriptions of the other

Primo Levi discovered his otherness - his Jewish identity - by experiencing discrimination: through the anti-Semitic laws enforced by the Fascist regime in the 1930's and the year of imprisonment in Auschwitz. After his return to Italy, the notion of the "hybrid" helped Levi describe...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Rondaij, Joyce (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Stellenbosch University [2018]
In: Stellenbosch theological journal
Year: 2018, Volume: 4, Issue: 1, Pages: 367-386
IxTheo Classification:KAJ Church history 1914-; recent history
KBJ Italy
KBN Sub-Saharan Africa
NBE Anthropology
Further subjects:B Justice
B Primo Levi
B Nico Koopman
B Hybridity
B The Other
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Description
Summary:Primo Levi discovered his otherness - his Jewish identity - by experiencing discrimination: through the anti-Semitic laws enforced by the Fascist regime in the 1930's and the year of imprisonment in Auschwitz. After his return to Italy, the notion of the "hybrid" helped Levi describe his own non-fixated identity and was presented by him as a protection against the fear of the stranger and the return of the concentration camps as its threatening result. In this article I explore Levi's literary writings on hybridity and relate them to South African theologian Nico Koopman, who proposes a pedagogy of hybridity to support pluralistic societies in moving from alienation and oppression to human dignity and freedom. I propose that a dialogue between the post-Holocaust and post-apartheid context on hybridity can enrich our self-understanding as hybrid creatures and enable just relationships with others.
ISSN:2413-9467
Contains:Enthalten in: Stellenbosch theological journal
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.17570/stj.2018.v4n1.a17