LAUSR

This article analyses the concept of the human in Primo Levi's works, as well as his use of the animal as way of characterizing the nonhuman element inside the human. To disclose the implicit assumptions and far-reaching implications of Levi's thought, the article reads his writings through the lens of Roberto Esposito's work on the category of the person and the philosophy of the impersonal. The article is divided into three parts: the first gives an overview of Esposito work on the notion of the person; the second shows how Levi's Holocaust texts deploy the dispositif of the person; and the third looks at the ‘impersonal’ aspects of Levi's writings. The conclusion discusses the tensions that arise from these counter-narratives, arguing that, far from being accidental, they suggest that being human is primarily a political and ethical issue rather than a cognitive one.