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ABSTRACT
A comprehensive examination of the numerous manifestations of abjection in Bernhard Schlink's The Reader. This paper argues that the recurring motifs of illness and bodily incontinence, in addition to the dual symbolic role of Hanna as a mother and a lover, establishes Germany's relationship to its Holocaust history in unquestionably abject terms. Drawing on the groundbreaking anthropological work of Mary Douglas and Julia Kristeva's Powers of Horror, the Holocaust is examined in its role as a cultural taboo. Departing from previous work, the abjection in The Reader is holistically examined as it relates to the historic as well as psychological dimensions of German memorial culture.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Note on contributor
Carmelle M. Stephens is a third-year research student at the University of Sheffield, studying for her doctorate in the Department of English. Her research focuses primarily on collective memory and trauma. Her thesis pursues this broad theme, but confines itself to an analysis of the persistence and symbolic significance of the maternal figure in Holocaust literature; particular attention is given to the maternal figure as a universal symbol of abjection.
Notes
1. Donahue, “The Popular Culture Alibi,” 463.
2. Schlink, The Reader, 133.
3. Mahlendorf, “Trauma Narrated, Read and (Mis) understood,” 460.
4. Bernhard Schlink The Reader, BBC World Book Club, (January, 2011): http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00cp7t1.
5. Diner, “Holocaust Narratives, Beyond the Conceivable: Studies on Germany, Nazism and the Holocaust,” 220.
6. Moses, German Intellectuals and the Nazi Past, 36.
7. Walser, “No End to Auschwitz,” 26.
8. Kristeva, Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection, 2.
9. Ibid., 1.
10. The Reader, 151.
11. Ibid., 151.
12. Walser, 26.
13. Kristeva, 1.
14. Douglas, Purity and Danger, 98.
15. Ibid., 95.
16. Ibid., 114.
17. Ibid., 117.
18. Kristeva, 65.
19. Ibid., 3.
20. The Reader, 2.
21. Ibid., 3.
22. Ibid., 101.
23. Ibid., 166.
24. Roth, “Reading and Misreading The Reader,” 166.
25. Mahlendorf, 462.
26. Julia Kristeva, 75.
27. Magennis, “What Does Not Respect Borders,” 89.
28. Ibid., 91.
29. Ibid., 99.
30. Cuthbert, “Hepatitis A: Old and New,” 38–58.
31. Mahlendorf, 462.
32. World Health Organisation Factsheet: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs328/en/.
33. Littell, The Kindly Ones, 114.
34. Adams, “Reading as Violence in Jonathan Littell's The Kindly Ones,” 38.
35. Ibid., 38.
36. The Reader, 9.
37. Joschka Fischer (1984).
38. Kellenbach, “Vanishing Acts: Perpetrators in Post-War Germany,” 307.
39. Ibid., 306.
40. The Reader, 96.
41. Walser, ‘Our Auschwitz,’ 8.
42. The Reader, 2.
43. Kristeva, 2–3.
44. Duden, ‘Transition’ Opening of the Mouth, 65.
45. McCarthy, “Putting Stones in Place: Anne Duden and German Acts of Memory,” 11.
46. Ibid., 218.
47. Ibid., 213.
48. Ibid., 220.
49. The Reader, 2.
50. ‘German Jews Fear Rising Anti-Semitism During Mideast Refugee Influx’: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4760918,00.html.
51. ‘Germany Struggles to Help the Oppressed by Accepting 800,000 Refugees’ The Telegraph, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/11860762/Germany-struggles-with-the-challenge-and-the-obligation-to-help-the-oppressed-by-accepting-800000-refugees.html.
52. Bartov, “Germany as Victim,” 33.
53. Kluger, Still Alive, 66.
54. Ibid., 67.
55. The Reader, 153.
56. Ibid., 153.
58. Ibid., 118.
59. Ibid., 196.
60. Ibid., 145.
61. Metz, “Truth is a Woman,” 313.
62. Ibid., 310.
63. Metz, 312.
64. Douglas, 98.
65. Kristeva, 54.
66. The Reader, 3.
67. Ibid., 204.
68. Ibid., 26.
69. Metz, 312.
70. Ibid., 312.
71. Ibid., 312.
72. Ibid., 311.
73. The Reader, 90.
74. Von Kellenbach, 306.
75. The Reader, 187.
76. Ibid., 72.
77. The Reader, 201.
78. Ibid., 205.
79. Ibid., 216.
80. Ibid., 216.
81. Loshitzky, Spielberg's Holocaust, 2.