DARSTELLUNG UND PROBLEMATIK DER SCHULDFRAGE IN BERNHARD SCHLINKS ROMAN "DER VORLESER" SOWIE IN DER GLEICHNAMIGEN VERFILMUNG VON STEPHEN DALDRY
Abstract
This thesis discusses the question of guilt, as it appears on a variety of levels in Bernhard Schlink’s novel The Reader (1995) and its film adaptation by Stephen Daldry (2009). In general, a review of the question of the collective guilt of the parent- and child-generation will be argued. Several levels of guilt entanglement are witnessed in the main characters Hanna and Michael, from individual guilt towards the other to collective guilt, as it is known from the conflict of the '68 generation with the parental generation. Expressed in the novel mainly by Michael’s reflections, it is brought by audio-visual means into the film. An overview of the debt debate in the legal sense shows to what extent law and justice or moral and legal guilt can be apart.