Natalia Ginzburg

This book explores Ginzburg’s Jewishness in her autobiographical writings and traces the shift in her self-representation. It brings together substantial historical background on the period surrounding the Racial Laws, when Natalia Ginzburg and other Italian Jews were forced to confront the significance of their Jewishness. It highlights the reactions by Jews and non-Jews to the growing anti-Semitism of the times. In this context, moral identity is also discussed as a facet of Primo Levi and Giorgio Bassani’s Jewish identity.