Jorge Semprun, writing or life

The author analyzes Jorge Semprun’s book Literature or Life in an effort to define exactly what prevented Semprun from writing, as he had been planning to do, when he was released from Buchenwald. Because death and evil appear to be a vivencia, or an experience imprinted on the body, they cannot be assimilated. They thus lead to an individuation process which requires silence, oblivion, and action.