The online platform of the open access edition is conceived so as to:
(1) make all the letters available, giving the user several ways to read them, offering for each letter metadata and semantic tags, that will become tools for an advanced search of them. Offering these versions is a way to come close to the idea of “inclusive text”.
(2) build thematic focuses, literary excursuses, and in-depth historical and cultural analyses throughout:
- graphic visualization of the network of correspondence. This visualized network will form the main page of the website and represent the first ‘door’ that readers open to access the entire material. It will have Primo Levi at the very center and will be made up of the four other main nodal correspondents;
- biographical and intellectual focus for each of the correspondents: not only the five nodal characters, but also the secondary correspondents linked to them, such as Jean Améry, Ferdinand Meyer, Albrecht Goes, and others;
- timeline showing the progression and frequency of the correspondence in Levi’s biography;
- geographic map tracing the borders crossed by these letters and the cities and countries involved;
- thematic itineraries suggesting critical reading of groups of letters, focusing on philosophical concepts (guilt, shame, responsibility) or reflecting on the historical, geographic and cultural context. Some in-depth itineraries will also concern the books discussed in these exchanges, in order to build up the virtual bookshelf of this German network.
The framework that will be designed will take into consideration not only the FAIR Data and Open Science principles, but also a User Design perspective. An open source framework will be used to create the platform for LeviNeT.
LeviNeT aims to reach an international audience and community of scholars, students, teachers, and users. For this reason, the interface, the map, the timeline and the thematic itineraries will be in both Italian and English, translated into Italian and English by one or more professional translators employed for the project. The letters are in fact written in four different language (Italian, English, French, German); each letter will have a transcription in the original language next to the translation.
