Chronicle, Autobiography or Literary Text? Italian Testimonies of Flossenbürg Concentration Camp

ABSTRACT

This article is based on a long-term research project about texts written and published between 1946 and 2011 by Italian survivors of the concentration camp Flossenbürg. Even though their authors share the autobiographical experience, the point of departure and the justification of the writing process itself, it is striking how many different results can be observed in the written reconstruction in terms of form and content. Some accounts consist of a basic, chronological reconstruction of the period concerned, while others retrace the entire life (up to the writer’s present day) in which the terrible experience of the camp is a central event but not dealt with in isolation. Only a few authors have extended the simple ‘life chronicle’ to a general reflection on human experience. The aim of this paper is to offer a detailed analysis of these three different types of works, which, beyond the Flossenbürg accounts, may also serve as a key to a better understanding of written testimonies in general.

KEYWORDS:

• Testimonial literature
• autobiography
• concentration camps
• deportation literature

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Chiara Nannicini Streitberger is a lecturer of Italian and comparative literature at the Saint Louis University in Brussels. She has obtained her PhD from the Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III) in 2005 with a study on discontinuous narratives in novels by Ingeborg Bachmann, Italo Calvino and Georges Perec. Her current research focuses on autobiography, testimonial literature and the role of photography in literature.