(which is the section that has become known as the Infernoand which is
also the title of a chapter in Levi’s book, Survival in Auschwitz). Levi
recalls having said that he would give up his daily ration of soup to know
how to join two lines of poetry that had been on his mind during the
day’s labors:
[In the death camp, those lines from Dante] had great value.^12 They made it
possible for me to re-establish a link with the past, saving it from oblivion
and reinforcing my identity. They convinced me that my mind, although
besieged by everyday necessities had not ceased to function. They elevated
me in my own eyes and those of my interlocutor. They granted me a respite... in fact liberating and differentiating: in short, a way to find myself. (The
Drowned and the Saved, 139–140)
In Survival in Auschwitz, Levi describes in more detail what the lines
from Dante helped him to recover:
[those lines from Dante’s Canto had] to do with all men who toil, and with
us [my labor partner and me] in particular; ... who dare to reason of these
things with the poles for the soup on our shoulders. (Random House, 1998,
114)Art helped Levi to connect to a particular past, a past that tied him to a
culture of humanity, releasing him, if ever so briefly, from the depravity
he faced in Auschwitz. Of course, the past is not necessarily uplifting
and art does not necessarily connect one to an uplifting culture of
humanity. But some art does this, and it is worthwhile to reflect upon
what kind of art can do this and why. The path to barbarism of which
Adorno speaks when describing Auschwitz and the liquidation of the
self involved therein, was, for Levi, diverted through art.^13 Art elevated
him, liberated him, it helped him to find himself again through helping
him to re-establish his identity as a member of the group of humanity. In
Primo Levi’s words, words which take us to his experience of relocating
his lost humanity, we find a poignant example of what I call the human-
izing function of art, a function that, according to his own account,
helped Primo Levi survive. So, in the first broad brushstrokes of my
account, the humanizing function of art is related to art’s role in helping
us to survive by putting us in touch with our humanity. This may strike
some readers as too utilitarian, but any utility in this connection is
related to the realm of value, especially the value of respect for the dig-
nity of other human beings, so we are not dealing with any sort of vul-
gar utility.
The Humanizing Function of Art 79