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Literature of the Holocaust Perpetrator. a Comparative Literary Analysis of Jonathan Littell's

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Literature of the Holocaust Perpetrator. a Comparative Literary Analysis of Jonathan Littell's LITERATURE OF THE HOLOCAUST PERPETRATOR. A COMPARATIVE LITERARY ANALYSIS OF JONATHAN LITTELL’S “THE KINDLY ONES” WITH GERMAN VÄTERLITERATUR (FATHER LITERATURE). _______________________________________________________________ A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts in German in the University of Canterbury by Claudia Schnippering University of Canterbury 2014 Contents Acknowledgements Abstract Aims of thesis……………………………………..…………………………….……………. 2 1 Overview and concepts of perpetrator literature (by historians and fictional) and Väterliteratur…………………………………………………………………………………. 6 2 Individual texts……………………………………………………………………………. 16 2.1. Peter Schneider “Vati”…………………………………………………………………. 16 2.1.1. Author background…………………………………………………………………… 16 2.1.2. Perpetrator background………………………………………………………………. 16 2.1.3. Content and style……………………………………………………………………... 18 2.1.4. The father perpetrator and the son……………………………………………………. 19 2.1.5. Summary/Conclusion.................................................................................................... 29 2.2. Niklas Frank “Mein Vater. Eine Abrechnung”................................................................ 32 2.2.1. Author background…………………………………………………………………… 32 2.2.2. Perpetrator background………………………………………………………………. 33 2.2.3. Content and style……………………………………………………………….…….. 34 2.2.4. The father perpetrator and the son……………………………………………….…… 37 2.2.5. Summary/Conclusion………………………………………………………………… 44 2.3. Martin Pollack “Der Tote im Bunker”............................................................................. 47 2.3.1. Author background…………………………………………………………………… 47 2.3.2. Perpetrator background………………………………………………………………. 48 2.3.3. Content and style……………………………………………………………………... 49 2.3.4. The father perpetrator and the son……………………………………………………. 53 2.3.5. Summary/Conclusion………………………………………………………………… 63 2.4. Thomas Medicus “In den Augen meines Grossvaters”.................................................... 64 2.4.1. Author background…………………………………………………………………… 64 2.4.2. Perpetrator background………………………………………………………….…… 65 2.4.3. Content and style……………………………………………………………….…….. 66 2.4.4. The grandfather perpetrator and the grandson…………………………………….…. 69 2.4.5. Summary/Conclusion………………………………………………………….….….. 76 3 Comparison of the four novels of Väterliteratur……………………………………..…… 79 4 Jonathan Littell's “The Kindly Ones” (“Les Bienveillantes”)………………….…….…… 89 4.1. Author background…………………………………………………………….….……. 93 4.2. Reception of “The Kindly Ones”…………………………………………….………… 97 4.3. Content and style – overview of “The Kindly Ones”…………………………………. 105 4.4. Summary of chapters and meaning of chapter headings……………………………… 106 4.5. Confession and memoir, and the “Toccata”-chapter…………………………….……. 111 4.6. Historical novel and the role of Dr. Maximilian Aue as perpetrator……………….…. 116 4.7. Family and psychological novel and Greek tragedy – psychoanalytical and mythical motivation of Dr. Maximilian Aue as perpetrator and second part of the war novel.……... 122 5 The figure of Maximilian Aue compared with the perpetrator in German Väter- literatur…………………………………………………………………………………….. 135 6 Conclusion – Comparison of the Holocaust perpetrator in Väterliteratur and “The Kindly Ones”………………………………………………………………………………………. 145 Bibliography…………………………………...................................................................... 157 Acknowledgements The author wishes to express sincere appreciation and gratitude to Dr. Susanne Ledanff for her assistance and support in the preparation of this manuscript. Dr. Ledanff has supported me with her extensive and invaluable knowledge and expertise in German literature and in Holocaust studies. She has afforded me much patience, encouragement and much of her incredibly creative mind. I would also like to thank Ms. Bernadine Aulavemai for proof reading the manuscript. In addition, I would like to thank my husband for encouraging me always towards excellence and my children for putting up with many hours of research and disrupted family life. Abstract Undoubtedly the historical settings and aspects of the Nazi Holocaust have been examined for many decades. Research has focused much on the victims of the Holocaust. However, the examination of the perpetrators of the Nazi Holocaust continues to cause anxiety and controversy. In my thesis I examine what possible constraints are imposed on authors/narrators and also readers by the sensitive and explosive subject of the representation of Holocaust perpetrators. I compare four texts of German Väterliteratur with Jonathan Littell’s “The Kindly Ones” to examine the questions of aesthetics and ethics in the literary representation of Holocaust perpetrators, and if we can deduce their motives and motivations from these representations. The examination of these Holocaust perpetrator representations is an important contribution to our understanding of the past as well as a contribution to the formation of public cultural memory and identity. All of the examined narratives form part of a continuously growing body of literary expressions of the Holocaust perpetrator and highlight a distinct obligation to the history they narrate – be it fictional or real. My research includes a comparative literary analysis of authentic narratives featuring fictional perpetrators in order to find meaning in these representations that enable the reader to form not only a connection with a dark part of the German past but also with post-war and post-unification debates on the representation of the Holocaust. It also demonstrates a recognition that Holocaust perpetrators are as multifaceted and multidimensional as the narratives they occupy. My thesis is not an exhaustive compilation but rather forms a small sample discussion that enables the reader to emphasise the Holocaust perpetrator. The narratives representing Holocaust perpetrators in contemporary literature serve to transmit history into the future as part of public and personal memory discourse, and the remembrance of history. “…what is past is not dead; it is not even past.” Christa Wolf in “Kindheitsmuster” “…there is not a single aspect of German life and letters that remains unaffected by Auschwitz.” Demetz in “After the fires. Recent writings in Germanies, Austria and Switzerland” Aims of thesis Public discourse in Germany over the last few decades has been dominated by discussions regarding the memory of the Holocaust. As the American writer and Holocaust scholar Terrence Des Pres remarks: “…the image of the Holocaust is with us – a memory which haunts, a sounding board for all subsequent evil – in the back of the mind…for all of us now living, we, the inheritors.” (in de Pres) The discussions which include questions of memorialisation and representation of the Holocaust are reflected in all fields of society, and in particular the arts, film and literature. But in the immediate post-war decades these discussions were mainly victim-centred with literary contributions of memory literature by survivors such as Amery, Levi or Delbo. (in Grigson) Historian Saul Friedländer examined Nazi perpetrators in his work, “Nazi Germany and the Jews. The years of persecution, 1933- 1939” in which he announced his intention to establish a “historical account of the Holocaust in which the policies of the perpetrators, the attitudes of surrounding society and the world of the victims could be addressed within an integrated framework”. Such a framework had been - 2 - missing from most historical accounts up until then, and Friedländer succeeded in combining the processes of decision-making and their implementation with the experiences of victims. Though he examined perpetrators, he ultimately gave a voice to the Jewish victims of the Third Reich. Other historians had also examined perpetrators such as Browning (“Ordinary Men” Browning) and Goldhagen (in Goldhagen), and there were fierce debates in the public memory arena about the memorialisation of the Holocaust, for instance between Bubis, Chairman of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, and German writer Walser. Friedländer published another volume in 2007, a text in which he skilfully interweaves individual testimony with the wider depiction of war and Holocaust. During recent years there has been a noticeable increase in reflections on issues of conceptualisation and depiction of Holocaust perpetrators after an initial reluctance for fear of obscuring or de- empathising survivor perspectives, and we have seen these examinations not only in historical fields but areas such as psychology and sociology, and the artistic areas of film and literature. - 3 - My thesis examines the topic of Nazi perpetrators, the entanglements and implications they caused for the Nachgeborenen, and how this is reflected in texts of Väterliteratur compared to Littell’s “The Kindly Ones”. 1 “Väterliteratur” is a German literary genre of mostly autobiographical texts starting in the 1970s concerned with the examination of the fathers’ involvement in the Nazi regime and the moral implications that involvement had on their sons and daughters. Väterliteratur is often seen as a phenomenon of the 1970s but texts of Väterliteratur are still being published today. I suggest for my thesis the term “perpetrator literature” to reflect the subject matter of the representation of perpetrator profiles, and therefore the term includes the texts from the Väterliteratur genre in Germany and Austria, as well as Littell’s novel “The Kindly Ones”. (Eaglestone 123-134)
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