The Aporia of Auschwitz in Der Vorleser, by Bernhard Schlink: Justice, Guilt and Overcoming of the Past in the Literature

Abstract

This paper focuses on the analysis of the novel Der Vorleser (The Reader), from the point of view of its juridical content and relevance in the novel and the whole conception of the work, through the original text as main source of the analysis. In order to achieve our aims, we will study three focal points which are related: jurisprudence, justice and its (in)validity; guilty as a legal concept, moral guilt and collective guilt; and trial, criminal responsibility and criminal punishment. We will try to confirm if it is possible to speak of overcoming of the past (Vergangenheitsbewältigung), that is, those terrible crimes committed against Jews in extermination camps during the Second World War or if we can just speak of a legal and historical aporia shown by Schlink.