Gerda Nogal
Konteksty Kultury, Volume 12, Issue 3, 2015, pp. 354 - 368
https://doi.org/10.4467/23531991KK.15.023.4436The analyzed texts by Bernhard Schlink present male characters on the threshold of adulthood. The construction of these adolescences is set in the German reality of the post-war society of the 1950s and 1960s. The representation of the conditions of life and growing-up process of the male protagonists emphasizes the leading temporal and social categories, such as the class hierarchy of society, conservative upbringing, stable relations and traditional family roles. Moreover, the leading character constellations, which make the protagonists recall the past of the previous generation, are also significant for their biography and identity. The most important question in the analysis concerns the nature and aim of the participation of the members of the succeeding generation in the events and atrocities of the Nazi era of World War II, and the way those events influence the socio-cultural context of their adolescence and identity.