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Guilt, Love, and Forgiveness in David Hare’s The Reader and Bernhard Schlink’s Der Vorleser
Naglaa Hassan Abou-Agag
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DOI:10.17265/2159-5836/2014.03.003
Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt
The paper proposes to investigate feelings of guilt, love, and forgiveness as they manifest themselves in David Hare’s The Reader (2009). It will focus on Hare’s selection of detail in his screenplay The Reader; a dramatic adaptation of Bernhard Schlink’s novel of 1995. This will involve comparing the novel to the dramatic text for the purpose of showing the movement from narrative to dramatic rendering. The paper aspires to reach the conclusion that Hare’s screenplay, The Reader creates a world of signification where the interplay of guilt, love, and forgiveness shape the textual and stage space. Read in light of Shoshana Felman’s The Juridical Unconscious (2002), the play investigates the traumatic history of Nazi Germany with scope for analysis of guilt and forgiveness and the possibility of atonement through love and literature. The focus of the paper will be on the ideological and formal structure of the play and its impact on meanings and interpretations.
guilt, David Hare, Shoshana Felman, Nazi Germany, juridical unconscious
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