DOCSLIB.ORG

The Problem of Coming to Terms with the Past: a Post-Holocaust Theology of Remembrance

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Problem of Coming to Terms with the Past: a Post-Holocaust Theology of Remembrance Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CGU Theses & Dissertations CGU Student Scholarship 2012 The rP oblem of Coming to Terms with the Past: A Post-Holocaust Theology of Remembrance Jeremy D. Fackenthal Claremont Graduate University Recommended Citation Fackenthal, Jeremy D., "The rP oblem of Coming to Terms with the Past: A Post-Holocaust Theology of Remembrance" (2012). CGU Theses & Dissertations. Paper 33. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgu_etd/33 DOI: 10.5642/cguetd/33 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the CGU Student Scholarship at Scholarship @ Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in CGU Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholarship @ Claremont. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Problem of Coming to Terms with the Past: A Post-Holocaust Theology of Remembrance by Jeremy D. Fackenthal Claremont Graduate University Spring 2012 © Copyright Jeremy D. Fackenthal, 2012 All rights reserved. APPROVAL OF THE REVIEW COMMITTEE This dissertation has been duly read, reviewed, and critiqued by the Committee listed below, which hereby approves the manuscript of Jeremy D. Fackenthal as fulfilling the scope and quality requirements for meriting the degree of Ph.D. in Religion. Dr. Roland Faber, Chair Claremont Graduate University, Claremont Lincoln University Kilsby Family/John B. Cobb, Jr. Professor of Process Studies Dr. Philip Clayton Claremont Graduate University, Claremont Lincoln University, Claremont School of Theology Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Dr. Oona Eisenstadt Pomona College Fred Krinsky Professor of Jewish Studies and Associate Professor of Religious Studies Abstract The Problem of Coming to Terms with the Past: Toward a Theology of Remembrance by Jeremy D. Fackenthal Claremont Graduate University: Spring 2012 This dissertation examines the problem of coming to terms with the past in post-World War II Germany in the wake of the Holocaust by examining the philosophical critiques of Theodor Adorno and Eric Voegelin. It then extends these critiques into the ongoing discussion of post- Holocaust philosophy and theology, while introducing the speculative philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead as a helpful and appropriate means for continuing metaphysical reflection and perceiving the influence of the past upon the present and future in post-Holocaust discourse. This dissertation suggests, alongside Adorno and Voegelin, that finally coming to terms with the past proves much more dangerous than helpful. Instead, the focus should remain on remembering and reflecting critically upon the deleterious past of the Holocaust in order to avoid forgetfulness or effacement of the past. Whitehead’s philosophy provides a metaphysical means for considering how the past remains with us in the present and into the future. Out of this injunction to remember comes a theology of remembrance, which draws heavily from Walter Benjamin’s writing on weak messianism and inverse theology. The final focus of the dissertation is the development of a Christian theology of remembrance that requires Christians to rethink theology in light of the Holocaust. Dedication In loving memory of Judy Goldblatt, who taught me to love life, to embody tikkun olam, and to strive after better possibilities for the world even in the face of hopelessness. Acknowledgements I wish, first and foremost, to thank my wife and partner, Megan Fackenthal, for her love and support throughout my time as a graduate student. I am grateful for her encouragement, her advice, and her help as a sounding board for ideas. I would also like to thank my advisor and committee, Roland Faber, Philip Clayton, and Oona Eisenstadt, for their wisdom, their feedback, and their friendship through the writing process. I am particularly indebted to my advisor, Roland Faber, for his support of me and for the ways that he has helped to build and launch my academic career. Finally, I am deeply grateful to several friends who made this writing process so much more pleasurable than it otherwise would have been. To Tripp Fuller, thank you for the late night discussions and philosophical/theological arguments. To Tracy Hawkins, thank you for your own example of determination and high scholarship and for providing much needed moral support. To Kirsten Gerdes, thank you for our stimulating philosophical and ethical discussions and for your constant encouragement to seek out academic opportunities. v Contents Introduction 1 Vergangenheitsbewältigung and the Politics of Memory 8 Structure and Chapter Outline 15 Chapter 1: 18 Theodor Adorno and the Problem of Coming to Terms with the Past Theodor Adorno: Philosopher and Critical Theorist 18 The Meaning of Working through the Past 20 Guilt and Consciousness 24 Democracy, Fascism, and German Politics 29 Cultural and Individual Anti-Semitism 34 Adorno’s Turn to the Subject as Working Upon the Past 39 Chapter 2: 43 Eric Voegelin’s Critique of the Unmastered Past The Political Philosophy of Eric Voegelin 44 The Cliché of the Unmastered Past 46 The Cliché of Collective Guilt 54 Dedivinization, Dehumanization, and First and Second Reality 59 Master of the Present and Critical Self-Reflection 65 Chapter 3: 68 Metaphysics After Auschwitz The Failure of the Enlightenment 69 Aristotle and the Logic of Form 73 Metaphysical Reflection and Temporal Existence 77 The Remains of Metaphysical Reflection 85 Chapter 4: 94 Whitehead’s Speculative Philosophy as Metaphysics in Fall Whitehead as Mathematician and Philosopher 95 Speculative Philosophy as a System of General Ideas 99 Whitehead’s Philosophical Method 108 Oscillation Between Experience and Abstraction 112 Chapter 5: 123 Whitehead and the Relation Among the Past, Present, and Future The Non-linearity and Relativity of Past and Present 124 Creativity, Novelty, and the Potentiality of the Future 129 Tragedy and the Universality of Unique Events 137 Chapter 6: 152 Whitehead and God The Dipolar God 154 Problematizing Whitehead’s God 164 Whitehead’s Relationship to Theology 174 Chapter 7: 182 vi Theological Implications of Working Upon the Past and Mastering the Present Adorno’s (Inverse) Theology 183 Voegelin and Theology 193 Jewish Responses to the Holocaust 200 Christian Theology After the Holocaust 211 Chapter 8: 217 A Christian Theology of Remembrance Volf’s Theology of Remembrance 219 Metz on Memory After Auschwitz 223 Benjamin’s Weak Messianism and Inverse Theology 225 Remembrance of Damaged Life 239 Bibliography 251 vii Introduction: Vergangenheitsbewältigung and the Possibilities of Remembrance After the Second World War, as Europe sifted through the rubble of destroyed cities and towns and as survivors of Nazi concentration and extermination camps sought for a means to go on living, the German populace faced serious questions regarding the period from 1933 to 1945. Many in Germany referred to 1945 as Jahr Null,1 demonstrating a strong desire to move forward with a clean slate, effectively forgetting the recent past of Nazi rule. However, as the next twenty years proved, the process of negotiating Germany’s history and examining the relation between the past and present in German society and politics was not so simple as the phrase Jahr Null might denote. As Germans slowly began to admit, discuss, and examine the baleful events of the Second World War and the Holocaust, German intellectuals and public figures coined various terms for the process of recognizing and questioning the past, the most prominent of which became the term Vergangenheitsbewältigung. This word (or string of words) has been translated most often in English as “coming to terms with the past,” though a more literal translation would be “mastering the past.” Vergangenheitsbewältigung appeared in public use around the late 1950s and was accompanied by other terms, such as Aufarbeitung, “working through the past.” The question of how to come to terms with the past occupied much conversation in German politics, media, and intellectual circles, and Vergangenheitsbewältigung “came to denote all discussions about the appropriate political, social, and moral agendas for the post fascist age and all initiatives designed to implement these alleged historical lessons.”2 Moreover, Vergangenheitsbewältigung evolved into the means by which many Germans 1 Stuart Parkes, Understanding Contemporary Germany (New York: Routledge, 1997), 148. 2 Wulf Kansteiner, “Losing the War, Winning the Memory Battle: The Legacy of Nazism, World War II, and the Holocaust in the Federal Republic of Germany,” in The Politics of Memory in Postwar Europe, ed. Richard Ned Lebow, et al. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006), 3. 1 attempted to deal with their own guilt as a result of their direct or complicit involvement in the Final Solution, the term by which the Nazis referred to the systematic murder of approximately ten million people. Though Vergangenheitsbewältigung may have originated as a worthwhile exercise in self-reflection, its critics (and I with them) note that it quickly devolved into a means of hastily dealing with the past so as to be done with and move on from the past. Indeed, the phrase “mastering the past” demonstrates that the process aims at its own sort of “final solution” as a point in time in which the past has been “mastered,” a point at which the past can be set aside or simply swept under the rug. This understanding of Vergangenheitsbewältigung as a finite process with a clear end remains today and is exhibited in
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Process Perspectives CONTENTS the Newsmagazine of the Center for Feature Articles Process Studies ...A Relational Worldview for the Common Good
    W I N TER 2018 P ROCESS PERSPECTIVES PAGE 1 ISSN 0360-618x VOLUME 40 NUMBER 1 PROCESS WINTER 2018 ...A RELATIONAL WORLDVIEW FOR THE PERSPECTIVES COMMON GOOD NEWS MAGAZINE OF THE CENTER FOR PROCESS STUDIES PPrroocceessss AArrtt ((44)) "PREHENSION" POSTER (10) THE SPIRITUAL ALPHABET (12) CONFERENCES (14) SEMINARS (21) INTERCONNECTIONS (24) PAGE 2 P ROCESS PERSPECTIVES W I N TER 2018 Process Perspectives CONTENTS The Newsmagazine of the Center for Feature Articles Process Studies ...a relational worldview for the common good. CPS and EcoCiv at the Parliament of World Religions 3 Volume 40.1 Art as Process: Process as Art 4 Winter 2018 "Prehension" Poster 10 Editor The Spiritual Alphabet: "B" is for Beauty 12 Katie Cloward Smith Published by the Center for Process Studies Events,Conferences & Seminars 1325 North College Avenue Claremont, CA 91711-3154 Nature in Process: Novel Approaches to Science and Metaphysics 14 Real Spirituality for Your Church Online Conference 16 Print Subscription Rates Green Transition Toward Ecological Civilization: 17 USA: $25 A Korea-US Dialogue Elsewhere: $30 US Funds Only AAR Review 19 For information on membership call: Whitehead Revealed: Examining Whitehead’s First Year of 20 (909) 447-2533 Harvard Lectures Or visit our website: ctr4process.org Counter-imperial Churching for a Planetary Gospel 21 Email: [email protected] Cobb, Neville and the Riddle of God 21 An Informal Lecture and Conversation with John B. Cobb, Jr. 22 Co-Directors: Philip Clayton John B. Cobb, Jr. Monica A. Coleman Interconnections Roland Faber David Ray Griffin Greater Arkansas Interfaith Network 24 Marjorie Hewitt Suchocki John Cobb in China 2017 24 Executive Director: Wm.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 1 “Ich Bin Und Bleibe Bloȕ Poet Und Als Poet Werde Ich
    “Ich bin ud bleibe bloß Poet und als Poet werde ich auch sterben.” Friedrich Schiller’s Sense of Poetic Calling and the Role of the Poetic Idea in his Emerging Professional Identity as a Dramaturge Item Type text; Electronic Dissertation Authors Cser, Agnes Judit Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 25/09/2021 13:31:04 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/627671 1 “ICH BIN UND BLEIBE BLOȕ POET UND ALS POET WERDE ICH AUCH STERBEN.“ FRIEDRICH SCHILLER’S SENSE OF POETIC CALLING AND THE ROLE OF THE POETIC IDEA IN HIS EMERGING PROFESSIONAL IDENTITY AS A DRAMATURGE By Agnes J. Cser __________________________ Copyright © Agnes J. Cser 2018 Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF GERMAN STUDIES In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2018 1 3 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR This dissertation has been submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this dissertation are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgement of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the copyright holder.
    [Show full text]
  • Experience That Students Gain from Liv- Ing on Campus
    North Park Press North Park University Student Newspaper Volume 89, Issue 13 Volume 30 January 2009 Friday, “Value” and “Experience” Come at a Price Andrew Cohen the latest North Parker, the tics of only on-campus overused facilities they Feature Editor quarterly campus bulletin, housing, then it would give us. One thing that con- showed that students pay be as bad as Wheaton. tinually boggles my mind is In This Issue North Park Univer- $7.5 million to live in these Likewise, living with that no matter where I live, sity values the experience lovely accommodations. people who are “different” those unfortunate people that students gain from liv- Now I am not one to from you tends to only hap- who live in the “Kedzie Letter from the Editor ing on campus. If this is a complain, I just have sev- pen your freshman year Two’s” pay the exact same Cartoon true statement, then why is it eral suggestions that I when you move in with the price that I do when living 2 that many NPU students are think are valid for students roommate assigned to you. in a six-person house. Their Value and Experience cont. so dissatisfied with campus to know, so that they may Because, like it or not North kitchen is smaller than So What Do You Think? housing? North Park likes raise their voices (yes, you Park, when students move a regular walk-in closet, to claim many things, as have these) in opposition out of the dorms or change the bathroom is cramped Fireside Chat we have learned (especially of current NPU policies.
    [Show full text]
  • Table of Content
    3 Religion and Culttural Traditions – Sections & Papers 3.1 Interreligious Dialogue Section Head: J. R. Hustwit Tuesday, July 4, afternoon Room: Stuba Session 1 1 Donna Bowman PhD Honors College, University of Central Arkansas 201 Donaghey Avenue Conway, AR 72035 USA e-mail: [email protected] The Ethics of Pluralism and the Price of Submission Abstract: American students are being well taught,in primary and secondary settings, to behave well in a pluralistic setting. The mantra "Teach Tolerance" has produced handsome results. Students learn early and often that not everyone believes as they do, thinks as they do, or acts as they would prefer or think natural. "Tolerance," however, is a limited principle of behavior. It simply urges one to restrain oneself from criticizing or impeding another. It is not closely linked to a cognitive understanding of why one should do so; indeed, other than the idea that others have a "right" to their beliefs and private behaviors, or that one would dislike being criticized or restrained oneself, tolerant individuals are often at a loss to explain why tolerance is a better course of action than intolerance. At an extreme, students who have been taught tolerance believe that one should not intervene in another culture's practices even when they are manifestly cruel or unjust; honor killings, genital mutilation, even slavery must be allowed to continue in the name of an uncomfortably restrictive notion of tolerance. In this paper I link a more robust ethic of pluralism, with its intellectual basis for action and conviction in the face of difference, to the related problem of an obedience ethic.
    [Show full text]
  • "Reading-To" and the Post-Holocaust Suicide in Schlink's the Reader Michael Lackey
    University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well University of Minnesota Morris Digital Well English Publications Faculty and Staff choS larship 4-2018 The Art of "Reading-To" and the Post-Holocaust Suicide in Schlink's The Reader Michael Lackey Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/eng_facpubs Part of the German Literature Commons The Art of “Reading-To” and the Post-Holocaust Suicide in Schlink’s The Reader Michael Lackey This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by John Hopkins University Press in Philosophy and Literature in April 2018, available online: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/695386 The post-Holocaust suicide of a concentration camp survivor is particularly unsettling. One thinks, for instance, of Cliff Stern’s devastated response to Professor Louis Levy’s death in Woody Allen’s movie Crimes and Misdemeanors. Loosely based on Primo Levi, Allen’s professor provides in short documentary clips an astute analysis of the contradictions of a loving God in the Old Testament and stoically counsels embracing life despite the indifference and occasional cruelty of the universe. Having experienced, understood, and accepted the absurdity and injustice of life, Levy, one might think, would rage to the bitter end against the dying of the light. But for no apparent reason, he kills himself. Cliff’s response is telling. After noting that the philosopher’s entire family had been killed during the Holocaust, Cliff says that Levy “had seen the worst side of life, and he was always affirmative, always said yes to life, yes, yes, and now today he says no.”1 Killing oneself during the worst time imaginable might seem to be the logical response.
    [Show full text]
  • The Complications of Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Post-Nazi Germany
    „Die Aufarbeitung der Vergangenheit“: The Complications of Vergangenheitsbewältigung in Post-Nazi Germany Emily E. Wendel Senior Honors Thesis Department of German Wittenberg University Director: Dr. Timothy Bennett 11 April 2008 Wendel 2 CONTENTS Introduction ………………………………………………………………...……………………. 3 Understanding the Culture of the Third Reich ……………………………..……………………. 4 Examining the Perpetrators …………………………………………………………………….. 15 Moving Forward ……………………………………………………………………………….. 25 Educating the Next Generation ………………………………………………………………… 35 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………………………... 49 Notes …………………………………………………………………………………………… 50 Works Cited ……………………………………………………………………………………. 52 Wendel 3 Introduction Essentially since 1945, Germans have struggled with issues both of national and personal responsibility for the events of the Holocaust and the Second World War. In an effort to alleviate the pain of the past, many, especially in the beginning, simply kept silent on the matter. But as writers and thinkers have begun to break this silence, a complex set of questions emerges. To what extent are the ordinary Germans who collaborated with the Nazis to be held accountable for their actions? What does it mean when we still love these perpetrators? And what shall we tell our children about their heritage and their stake in their nation’s legacy? Through an analysis of works that grapple with these issues, I will attempt to understand the cultural phenomena that led to the Holocaust, as well as some of the philosophies that modern writer and theorists have submitted in response to such questions. Wendel 4 Understanding the Culture of the Third Reich In retrospect, it is often easy to make the Germans who collaborated with the Nazis into uncomplicated monsters. We find their actions reprehensible, and we feel that had we been placed in such a situation, we would have chosen to resist the Nazi regime.
    [Show full text]
  • Table of Content
    2. Philosophy – Sections & Papers 2.1 Process Philosophy Section Head: Leemon McHenry Wednesday, July 5, afternoon Room: HS 102 Session 1 1 Pierfrancesco Basile Dr. Swiss National Foundation Zürich Postal Code: 8049 Switzerland Phone:0041-044-341 65 84 fax: 0041-044.341 65 84 e-mail: [email protected] Experience All the Way Down: the Reinterpretation of Leibniz in James Ward and Alfred North Whitehead Abstract: In the preface to Process and Reality (1929) Whitehead indicates the following among the “contemporary school of though” and authors to which he believes that his own attempt to develop a metaphysical theory of reality is indebted: English and American realism (Nunn), process philosophy and pragmatism (Bergson, James, Dewey), British absolute idealism (Bradley). No mention is made of the Cambridge philosopher James Ward (1843-1925), author among others of two significant series of Gifford Lectures entitled Naturalism and Agnosticism (1899) and The Realm of Ends: Pluralism and Theism (1911). Focussing mainly on this latter work, the paper examines some rather striking similarities in the philosophies of the two thinkers, arguing that some of Whitehead’s conceptual breakthroughs are already anticipated by Ward’s attempt to develop a revised version of Leibniz’s monadism as a pluralistic yet spiritualistic alternative to Bradley’s absolute idealism. From a philosophical point of view, the aim of the paper is to evaluate the motivations leading both philosophers towards a panpsychic conception of the ultimate nature of reality. 2 John Lango Professor Department of Philosophy Hunter College 695 Park Avenue New York, NY 10021 USA Phone: 212-769-4022 e-mail: [email protected] Whitehead's Philosophy of Time Abstract: Presumably, process philosophy takes time seriously.
    [Show full text]
  • Limited Thinking As Legacy in Schlink's
    University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository University of Calgary Press University of Calgary Press Open Access Books 2017-02 Understanding Atrocities: Remembering, Representing and Teaching Genocide Murray, Scott W. University of Calgary Press http://hdl.handle.net/1880/51806 book http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives 4.0 International Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNDERSTANDING ATROCITIES: REMEMBERING, REPRESENTING, AND TEACHING GENOCIDE Edited by Scott W. Murray ISBN 978-1-55238-886-0 THIS BOOK IS AN OPEN ACCESS E-BOOK. It is an electronic version of a book that can be purchased in physical form through any bookseller or on-line retailer, or from our distributors. Please support this open access publication by requesting that your university purchase a print copy of this book, or by purchasing a copy yourself. If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected] Cover Art: The artwork on the cover of this book is not open access and falls under traditional copyright provisions; it cannot be reproduced in any way without written permission of the artists and their agents. The cover can be displayed as a complete cover image for the purposes of publicizing this work, but the artwork cannot be extracted from the context of the cover of this specific work without breaching the artist’s copyright. COPYRIGHT NOTICE: This open-access work is published under a Creative Commons licence. This means that you are free to copy, distribute, display or perform the work as long as you clearly attribute the work to its authors and publisher, that you do not use this work for any commercial gain in any form, and that you in no way alter, transform, or build on the work outside of its use in normal academic scholarship without our express permission.
    [Show full text]
  • “A Night at the Oscars” the 81St Academy Awards Official Thinkso Home Edition and the Winner Is: Extra! Extra! Play Along in the Comfort of Your Own Living Room
    “a night at the oscars” the 81st academy awards official thinkso home edition and the winner is: extra! extra! Play along in the comfort of your own living room. Make your picks and For bonus points, before the collect your points—1 each for standard categories, 2 for the biggies. show, pick scenarios from the list below. Get a prediction right and win. Get it wrong and Best Picture Of the Year (2 Pts.) Best DOcumeNtarY SUBTRACT from your total. ■ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button The Betrayal (Nerakhoon) ■ Frost/Nixon Encounters at the End of the World Salma Hayek shows less cleavage ■ Milk The Garden than Scarlett Johanssen (1) ■ The Reader Man on Wire ■ Slumdog Millionaire Trouble the Water Jack Nicholson does NOT wear his sunglasses in the theater (2) Best DirectOr (2 Pts.) Best ForeiGN fiLm Jack Nicholson sits in the front row (1) ■ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Baader Meinhof Complex — Germany David Fincher The Class — France Someone mentions “Diego Luna” ■ Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard Departures — Japan on stage (3) ■ Milk, Gus Van Sant Revanche — Austria Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes fake ■ The Reader, Stephen Daldry Waltz with Bashir — Israel a happy marriage (1) ■ Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle Best fiLm eDitiNG Renee Zellweger brings Dan Abrams BEST ACTOr — LeaDiNG rOLe (2 Pts.) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button as her date (2) ■ Richard Jenkins in The Visitor The Dark Knight Hugh Jackman bombs as host (2) ■ Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon Frost/Nixon ■ Sean Penn in Milk Milk Helen Mirren looks like a hottie (1) ■ Brad
    [Show full text]
  • The Reader Viewed About It, Kate Winslet, Who Played Hanna, Was Defensive: Screenplay by David Hare
    FILM REVIEWS we witness what one might consider statutory rape by today’s standards (the age of consent was probably 14 in 1950s Germany; Michael was 15). When inter- The Reader viewed about it, Kate Winslet, who played Hanna, was defensive: Screenplay by David Hare. Directed by Stephen Daldry. Produced by Donna Gigliotti, Anthony Minghella, I’m so sorry, “statutory rape?” I’ve got to tell you, I’m so offended by that. No, I really am. I genuinely am. To me, Redmond Morris, and Sydney Pollack. A Weinstein that is absolutely not this story at all. That boy knows Company (U.S.) release of a Mirage Enterprises (U.S.)/ exactly what he’s doing. For a start, Hanna Schmitz thinks Neunte Babelsberg Film (Germany) production. Released that he’s seventeen, not fifteen, you know? She’s not doing in the United States January 9, 2009. 124 minutes. anything wrong [Ref. 2]. Winslet goes on at length, suggesting identification with Hanna, which could have intensified her award- Reviewed by Kenneth J. Weiss, MD, and winning performance. And yes, that’s not what it’s Christi Cooper-Lehki, DO about. The motion picture, The Reader, based on Bernhard Beyond her aloofness, and intermingled with ten- Schlink’s book of the same name,1 treats adaptation derness, Hanna has a few angry outbursts that puzzle to life on several levels. It is not a Holocaust genre Michael and us. She goes to work as a trolley conduc- film, and we will not be discussing the psychology of tor and Michael gets on the trolley but sits in the rear postwar Germans.
    [Show full text]
  • THE READER PUBLICATION.Fdr
    The Reader By David Hare Based on the novel by Bernhard Schlink INT. MICHAEL’S APARTMENT. BERLIN. DAY. CREDITS 1995. A modern apartment, all cool and glass. MICHAEL BERG is preparing breakfast, laying the table for two. He is 51, dark- haired, saturnine. He is doing everything with deliberate quietness, taking the occasional glance towards the bedroom to check he’s not making too much noise. He is boiling an egg, which he takes out of boiling water and puts on a sparkling clean plate. MICHAEL puts the yolk-stained egg-cup and plate into the sink, his breakfast eaten, then, as noiseless as he can, turns on the tap to run water. The bedroom door opens, and BRIGITTE comes out, naked. She’s attractive, younger. The credits end. BRIGITTE You didn’t wake me. MICHAEL You were sleeping. BRIGITTE You let me sleep because you can’t bear to have breakfast with me. It’s half-serious. MICHAEL doesn’t react. MICHAEL Nothing could be further from the truth. I boiled you an egg. See? MICHAEL produces a second boiled egg in a cup, seemingly from nowhere, like a magician, and puts it on the table. MICHAEL I’d hardly have boiled you an egg if I didn’t want to see you. Tea or coffee? BRIGITTE has re-appeared from the bedroom, now in a dressing gown. She’s still half-serious. BRIGITTE Does any woman ever stay long enough to find out what the hell goes on in your head? MICHAEL smiles to himself. BRIGITTE What are you doing tonight? 2.
    [Show full text]
  • Bernhard Schlink's the Reader, the Trauma of Second-Generation Germans
    ISSN 2411-9598 (Print) European Journal of January-April 2018 ISSN 2411-4103 (Online) Language and Literature Studies Volume 4 Issue 2 Bernhard Schlink’s the Reader, the Trauma of Second-Generation Germans Gamze Sabancı Uzun Assistant Professor at İstanbul Aydin University Abstract Bernhard Schlink’s novel The Reader (1995) has been a very controversial book since its publication. Not only it portrays a sexual relationship between a 15-year-old Michael and 36-year-old Hanna without any judgment on the part of the author as the voice of the society, but it also leaves a space for the reader to sympathize with a Nazi criminal. The analyses presented in this article will take the cue from the current discussion of The Reader as a Holocaust novel. Thus, it will be argued that Michael’s victimization by Hanna is similar to her treatment of the Jews in the camp. The examination of the novel commences with the analysis of his relationship with Hanna, which is the focus of the first part of the novel, revealing that silence is the key element of their oedipal mother−son relationship, which they use as a strategy for safeguarding their bond. This will be followed by the analysis of Michael’s silence during Hanna’s trial, the findings of which indicate that, as an adult, Michael is keen to put his traumatic past behind him and thus distances himself from language by remaining silent about his experiences. Henceforth, his actions resemble the Jewish survivors’ refusal to discuss what happened to them in the camps.
    [Show full text]