Il nome degli elementi nel sistema narrativo di primo levi

The Periodic Table, the autobiography of a chemist, made in time and stratified in a structured text as a coming-of-age plot, reveals one main design through the choice of the elements' names. Primo Levi selects the chemical elements that best match the most meaningful moments and characters of the his story, following, on one hand, topics and characters that are strong in his memory and, on the other hand, models that create a bond between chemistry and literature. Therefore, the friends made in schoolrooms, concentration camps or factories determine the presence of names and elements, whilst the template of affinity comes from Goethe as well as from ancient mythology (and the language is borrowed from both of them). The structural homogeneity of the collection resists all editing suggestions and follows its own thread, which today appears to be more and more convincing.