Tracce del sacro nelle carte leviane del confino (1935–1936)

Abstract

The following article, part of a broader research dedicated to studying the theme of the “sacred” in Carlo Levi's work during the interwar period, seeks to trace Levi's reflections on this theme as they emerge in documents from his period of confinement (1935–1936), both in letters to family or friends and in a personal writing such as the Prison Notebook. Although Levi will give an explicit definition of the concept of the “sacred” only in 1939, at the beginning of the essay “Fear of Freedom”, the early articles and archival documents preceding 1939 suggest that his reflections on “religion” and the “sacred” have been central to his thought before then. In particular, the experience of confinement seems to play a determining role in the development of his ideas on this theme.