Uniwersyteckie Czasopisma NaukoweThe Problem of Kitsch in the Context of Holocaust Fiction: Jonathan Littell and Bernhard Schlink
Słowa kluczowe:
kitsch, Holocaust fiction, ethics, aesthetics, literary representationAbstrakt
This paper aims to discuss the problem of kitsch within a broader framework encompassing the issues and limits of representation in the case of fictional works dealing with concentration camp trauma. Bernhard Schlink’s The Reader (Der Vorleser, 1995) and Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones (Les Bienveillantes, 2006) have both achieved international acclaim yet also sparked a huge scandal mainly for their narrative choice of embracing the (controversial) point of view of the perpetrator. Some of the harshest critics in Germany have issued condemnations on grounds of kitsch, lack of aesthetic value and moral relativism; even the term ‘Holo-kitsch’ was coined. Yet the label ‘kitsch’ was attached by some voices even to The Hunger Angel (Schaukelatem, 2009), a totally different kind of novel depicting horrendous events in a Soviet concentration camp from the perspective of a Romanian German deported to Ukraine. This is a work of fiction belonging to a Nobel prize laureate famous for her difficult metaphoric style, Herta Müller, and rooted in the poetic prose of German Expressionism. We would like to outline the main points of the debate, drawing both on reception data and on scholarly papers, whilst investigating the various (and often fuzzy) assumptions which seem to be related to the kitsch-concept within the context of Holocaust/Gulag fiction, for example, the extent to which it implies a negative value judgement from an aesthetic perspective and/or an ethically grounded uneasiness about trespassing moral limits of representation.
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Bibliografia
Asholt Wolfgang. 2011. A German Reading of the German Reception of The Kindly Ones, 221–238. In: Barjonet Aurélie and Razinsky Liran, eds. Writing the Holocaust Today. Critical Perspectives on Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Baudrillard Jean. 1998. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London: Sage Publications.
Boswell M.J. 2014. Holocaust literature and the taboo, 179–197. In: Adams Jenni, ed. The Bloomsbury Companion to Holocaust Literature. London/Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Bukiet Melvin Jules. 2009. “Book Review: The Kindly Ones, by Jonathan Littell.” Online:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR2009030602860.html. Accessed July 20, 2015.
Felluga Dino. 2011. “Terms Used by Postmodernists. Introductory Guide to Critical Theory”. Purdue University. Online: http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/postmodernism/terms/. Accessed July 12, 2015.
Friedländer Saul. 1984. Reflections of Nazism: An Essay on Kitsch and Death. New York: Harper and Row.
Greenberg Clement.1939. “Avant-garde and Kitsch”. Partisan Review 6: 34–49.
Hall Katharina. 2013. Text Crimes in the Shadow of the Holocaust: The Case of Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser/The Reader, 193–208. In: Cheesman Tom, ed. German Text Crimes: Writers Accused, from the 1950s to the 2000s. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Hallberg Garth Risk. 2009. “Everybody’s Holocaust: Jonathan Littell’s Fictional Nazi and Postmodernity’s Double Bind”. Online:http://www.themillions.com/2009/03/everybody-holocaust-jonathanlittell_23.html. Accessed July 16, 2015.
Hoffmann Gerhard. 2005. From Modernism to Postmodernism: Concepts and Strategies of Postmodern American Fiction. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Izdebska Agnieszka and Szajnert Danuta. 2014. The Holocaust – Postmemory – Postmodern Novel: The Flytrap Factory by Andrzej Bart, Tworki by Marek Bieńczyk and Skaza by Magdalena Tulli, 139–155. In: Ibler Reinhard, ed. Der Holocaust in den mitteleuropäischen Literaturen und Kulturen seit 1989 (The Holocaust in the Central European Literatures and Cultures since 1989). New Yok: Columbia University Press.
Jones Jonathan. 1999. “Adolf Hitler, Führer of Kitsch”. Online:http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/jul/12/features11.g22. Accessed July 20, 2015.
Kister Kurt. 2008. “Jonathan Littell: Die Wohlgesinnten. Eine Geographie des Grauens”. Online: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/2.220/jonathan-littell-die-wohlgesinnten-einegeographie-des-grauens-1.270040. Accessed July 19, 2015.
Klüger Ruth. 2000. Dichter und Historiker: Fakten und Fiktionen. Wien: Picus Verlag.
Kristeva Julia. 2007. “De l'abjection à la banalité du malˮ. Debate with Jonathan Littell, Julia Kristeva and RonyBrauman. Online: http://www.kristeva.fr/abjection.html. Accessed July 19, 2015.
Kuon Peter. 2012. From ʻKitsch’ to ʻSplatter’: The Aesthetics of Violence in The Kindly Ones. Writing the Holocaust Today, 33–45. In: Barjonet Aurélie and Razinsky Liran, eds. Writing the Holocaust Today. Critical Perspectives on Jonathan Littell’s „The Kindly Ones”. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Lanzmann Claude. 2006. “Les Bienveillantes, vénéneuse fleur du malˮ. Le Journal du Dimanche 3114: 14.
Lanzmann Claude. 2011. Shoah. Reinbeck: Rowohlt.
Littell Jonathan. 2006. Les Bienveillantes. Gallimard.
Mack Michael. 2014. Philosophy and Literature in Times of Crisis: Challenging our Infatuation with Numbers. London/Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Maltby Paul. 2012.“Kinkade, Koons, Kitsch.” Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 12 (1): 53–81.
Manoshek Walter. 2008. “Wir werden es nie erfahren”. Online: http://diepresse.com/home/kultur/news/370435/print.do. Accessed July 21, 2015. Mendelsohn Daniel. 2009. “Transgression”. Online: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/mar/26/transgression/. Accessed 22 July, 2015.
Metz Joseph. 2004. “<<Truth Is a Woman>>: Post-Holocaust Narrative, Postmodernism, and the Gender of Fascism in Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleserˮ. The German Quarterly 77 (3): 300-323.
Niven Bill. 2007. Representations of the past 1, Perpetrators, 125–141. In: Taberner Stuart, ed. Contemporary German Fiction: Writing in the Berlin Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ozick Cynthia. 1999. “The Rights of History and the Rights of Imagination”. Commentary113: 25–27. Online: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-rights-of-history-and-the-rights-of-imagination/. Accessed July 26, 2015.
Powers Scott M. 2011. Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones: Evil and the Ethical Limits of the Post-modern Narrative, 203–211. In: Powers Scott M., ed. Evil in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Radisch Iris. 2008. “Am Anfang steht ein Missverständnisˮ. Online: http://www.zeit.de/2008/08/L-Littell-Radisch. Accessed July 27, 2015.
Radisch Iris. 2009. “Kitsch oder Weltliteratur? Gulag-Romane lassen sich nicht aus zweiter Hand schreiben. Herta Müllers Buch ist parfümiert und kulissenhaft”. Online: http://www.zeit.de/2009/ 35/L-B-Mueller-Contra. Accessed July 27, 2015.
Rancière Jacques. 2001. S’il y a de l’irreprésentable, 81–102. In: Nancy Jean-Luc, ed. L’Artet la mémoire des camps: représenterexterminer. Paris: Seuil.
Raphael Frederic. 2009. “Bad beyond imagination”. Online: http://standpointmag.co.uk/critique-march-09-frederic-raphael-the-reader-bernhardschlink-film. Accessed July 18, 2015.
Rau Petra. 2013. Our Nazis: Representations of Fascism in Contemporary Literature and Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Reynolds Daniel. 2003. “A Portrait of Misreading. Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser”. Seminar 39 (3): 238-257.
Schlink Bernhard. 2010. Der Vorleser. Diogenes.
Steinberg Gould Caroline. 2014. Schlink’s Der Vorleser: Literature, Cruelty, and Narrative (Un)reliability, 3–14. In: Gigliotti Simone, Golomb Jacob and Steinberg Gould Caroline, eds. Ethics, art, and representations of the Holocaust: Essays in honor of Berel Lang. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Suleiman Susan Rubin. 2009. “When the perpetrator becomes a reliable witness of the Holocaust: On Jonathan Littell’s Les Bienveillantes”. New German Critique 36 (1): 1-19.
Winkler Willi. 2002. “Vorlesen, Duschen, Durcharbeiten. Schlechter Stil, unaufrichtige Bilder: England begreift nicht mehr, was es an Bernhard Schlinks Bestseller Der Vorleser fand”. Süddeutsche Zeitung 75: 16.
Baudrillard Jean. 1998. The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures. London: Sage Publications.
Boswell M.J. 2014. Holocaust literature and the taboo, 179–197. In: Adams Jenni, ed. The Bloomsbury Companion to Holocaust Literature. London/Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Bukiet Melvin Jules. 2009. “Book Review: The Kindly Ones, by Jonathan Littell.” Online:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2009/03/06/AR2009030602860.html. Accessed July 20, 2015.
Felluga Dino. 2011. “Terms Used by Postmodernists. Introductory Guide to Critical Theory”. Purdue University. Online: http://www.purdue.edu/guidetotheory/postmodernism/terms/. Accessed July 12, 2015.
Friedländer Saul. 1984. Reflections of Nazism: An Essay on Kitsch and Death. New York: Harper and Row.
Greenberg Clement.1939. “Avant-garde and Kitsch”. Partisan Review 6: 34–49.
Hall Katharina. 2013. Text Crimes in the Shadow of the Holocaust: The Case of Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser/The Reader, 193–208. In: Cheesman Tom, ed. German Text Crimes: Writers Accused, from the 1950s to the 2000s. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Hallberg Garth Risk. 2009. “Everybody’s Holocaust: Jonathan Littell’s Fictional Nazi and Postmodernity’s Double Bind”. Online:http://www.themillions.com/2009/03/everybody-holocaust-jonathanlittell_23.html. Accessed July 16, 2015.
Hoffmann Gerhard. 2005. From Modernism to Postmodernism: Concepts and Strategies of Postmodern American Fiction. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Izdebska Agnieszka and Szajnert Danuta. 2014. The Holocaust – Postmemory – Postmodern Novel: The Flytrap Factory by Andrzej Bart, Tworki by Marek Bieńczyk and Skaza by Magdalena Tulli, 139–155. In: Ibler Reinhard, ed. Der Holocaust in den mitteleuropäischen Literaturen und Kulturen seit 1989 (The Holocaust in the Central European Literatures and Cultures since 1989). New Yok: Columbia University Press.
Jones Jonathan. 1999. “Adolf Hitler, Führer of Kitsch”. Online:http://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/1999/jul/12/features11.g22. Accessed July 20, 2015.
Kister Kurt. 2008. “Jonathan Littell: Die Wohlgesinnten. Eine Geographie des Grauens”. Online: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/2.220/jonathan-littell-die-wohlgesinnten-einegeographie-des-grauens-1.270040. Accessed July 19, 2015.
Klüger Ruth. 2000. Dichter und Historiker: Fakten und Fiktionen. Wien: Picus Verlag.
Kristeva Julia. 2007. “De l'abjection à la banalité du malˮ. Debate with Jonathan Littell, Julia Kristeva and RonyBrauman. Online: http://www.kristeva.fr/abjection.html. Accessed July 19, 2015.
Kuon Peter. 2012. From ʻKitsch’ to ʻSplatter’: The Aesthetics of Violence in The Kindly Ones. Writing the Holocaust Today, 33–45. In: Barjonet Aurélie and Razinsky Liran, eds. Writing the Holocaust Today. Critical Perspectives on Jonathan Littell’s „The Kindly Ones”. Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Lanzmann Claude. 2006. “Les Bienveillantes, vénéneuse fleur du malˮ. Le Journal du Dimanche 3114: 14.
Lanzmann Claude. 2011. Shoah. Reinbeck: Rowohlt.
Littell Jonathan. 2006. Les Bienveillantes. Gallimard.
Mack Michael. 2014. Philosophy and Literature in Times of Crisis: Challenging our Infatuation with Numbers. London/Oxford: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Maltby Paul. 2012.“Kinkade, Koons, Kitsch.” Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 12 (1): 53–81.
Manoshek Walter. 2008. “Wir werden es nie erfahren”. Online: http://diepresse.com/home/kultur/news/370435/print.do. Accessed July 21, 2015. Mendelsohn Daniel. 2009. “Transgression”. Online: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2009/mar/26/transgression/. Accessed 22 July, 2015.
Metz Joseph. 2004. “<<Truth Is a Woman>>: Post-Holocaust Narrative, Postmodernism, and the Gender of Fascism in Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleserˮ. The German Quarterly 77 (3): 300-323.
Niven Bill. 2007. Representations of the past 1, Perpetrators, 125–141. In: Taberner Stuart, ed. Contemporary German Fiction: Writing in the Berlin Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ozick Cynthia. 1999. “The Rights of History and the Rights of Imagination”. Commentary113: 25–27. Online: https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/the-rights-of-history-and-the-rights-of-imagination/. Accessed July 26, 2015.
Powers Scott M. 2011. Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones: Evil and the Ethical Limits of the Post-modern Narrative, 203–211. In: Powers Scott M., ed. Evil in Contemporary French and Francophone Literature. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Radisch Iris. 2008. “Am Anfang steht ein Missverständnisˮ. Online: http://www.zeit.de/2008/08/L-Littell-Radisch. Accessed July 27, 2015.
Radisch Iris. 2009. “Kitsch oder Weltliteratur? Gulag-Romane lassen sich nicht aus zweiter Hand schreiben. Herta Müllers Buch ist parfümiert und kulissenhaft”. Online: http://www.zeit.de/2009/ 35/L-B-Mueller-Contra. Accessed July 27, 2015.
Rancière Jacques. 2001. S’il y a de l’irreprésentable, 81–102. In: Nancy Jean-Luc, ed. L’Artet la mémoire des camps: représenterexterminer. Paris: Seuil.
Raphael Frederic. 2009. “Bad beyond imagination”. Online: http://standpointmag.co.uk/critique-march-09-frederic-raphael-the-reader-bernhardschlink-film. Accessed July 18, 2015.
Rau Petra. 2013. Our Nazis: Representations of Fascism in Contemporary Literature and Film. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Reynolds Daniel. 2003. “A Portrait of Misreading. Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser”. Seminar 39 (3): 238-257.
Schlink Bernhard. 2010. Der Vorleser. Diogenes.
Steinberg Gould Caroline. 2014. Schlink’s Der Vorleser: Literature, Cruelty, and Narrative (Un)reliability, 3–14. In: Gigliotti Simone, Golomb Jacob and Steinberg Gould Caroline, eds. Ethics, art, and representations of the Holocaust: Essays in honor of Berel Lang. Lanham: Lexington Books.
Suleiman Susan Rubin. 2009. “When the perpetrator becomes a reliable witness of the Holocaust: On Jonathan Littell’s Les Bienveillantes”. New German Critique 36 (1): 1-19.
Winkler Willi. 2002. “Vorlesen, Duschen, Durcharbeiten. Schlechter Stil, unaufrichtige Bilder: England begreift nicht mehr, was es an Bernhard Schlinks Bestseller Der Vorleser fand”. Süddeutsche Zeitung 75: 16.
Pobrania
Opublikowane
2016-10-24
Jak cytować
Ghita, R., & Ghita, C. (2016). The Problem of Kitsch in the Context of Holocaust Fiction: Jonathan Littell and Bernhard Schlink. Jednak Książki. Gdańskie Czasopismo Humanistyczne, (6), 107–124. Pobrano z https://czasopisma.bg.ug.edu.pl/index.php/JednakKsiazki/article/view/402
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