Theoretical Reflections

Neither Etty Hillesum nor Primo Levi could be labeled a novelist or poet. Both Jewish thinkers and writers have, however, through their very different narratives, helped us understand the systematic cruelty and surprising complexity of the Shoah. Their texts are far from fiction and have no reference to “l’art pour l’art”, art for its own sake, nor to the more exact expression: an aesthetic conception of art as independent in relation to motives and morals. Nevertheless, the texts of the concentration camp victim, Hillesum, and the survivor, Levi, are definitely driven by an effective poetical function. Is this a contradiction? No. There is no contradiction if we think along lines laid out by Roman Jakobson (1896-1982), a Russian-born linguist and philosopher active in the inter-war period and still highly topical today.

Jakobson wrote about the poetical function, which he said was found not only in what we normally call “poetry” such as lyrics and poems, but also in other genres. At the same time, he insisted upon the fact that poetry cannot be reduced to its poetical function only. He pointed out that the poetical does not reside in a specific theme or a choice of motive.