This thesis discusses the role of language in Primo Levi's Se questo e un uomo and La tregua. On the basis of Levi's conviction that language and communication are an essential part of civilized human existence, such critics as Brian Cliff, Patricia Sayre and Linnea Vacca have focused on the role of language in the destruction of the human being in concentration camps, while Valerio Ferme and Fabio Girelli-Carasi have also underlined the power of language to regenerate a sense of humanity in Auschwitz and after. This paper attempts to integrate these two approaches to the early work of Primo Levi, and illustrates the process of linguistic destruction in Auschwitz on the one hand, and the subsequent rebirth of communication both within Auschwitz and on Levi's long journey home, on the other. Levi's attention to language and communication provides a focus which separates his work from that of other witnesses and provides a unique vantage point from which to view his Auschwitz experience.

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