The distorsion of reality: review of the reality in The Kindly Ones, by Jonathan Littell
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RIS BIB ENDNOTEPublication date: 07.06.2013
Cahiers ERTA, 2013, Numéro 3, pp. 83 - 98
https://doi.org/10.4467/23538953CE.13.006.2119Authors
La déformation du réel comme mode de relecture du réel dans Les Bienveillantes de Jonathan Littell
In Jonathan Littel’s “The Kindly ones”, Aue, the nazi homodiegetic narrator, affected with a forehead wound, feels as if he were endowed with a third eye, a pineal one, which would enable him to see beyond the opacity of things. This third eye leads him to direct a particular look on reality, which is apparently distorted: seized with hallucination, Aue comes to see, in Hitler, a Jew who would dissimulate his earlocks. Similarly, at the end of the novel, this pineal eye leads him to capture nothing more than a single aspect of reality: the Führer’s nose, which he has a sudden urge to twist. What causes this distortion of reality, this surge of incoherence in the midst of a work reflecting the nazi argumentation? The hypothesis of our reading consists in maintaining that this pineal eye turns Aue into the puppet of the author, who is thus addressing a cryptic discourse to his reader. Beyond the theme of resistance, an ontological reflection is coming to light: with Hitler merging into his antithesis, namely the Jew, mankind can only be perceived as one and the social Darwinism upheld by the supporters of nazism as empty of meaning.
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Information: Cahiers ERTA, 2013, Numéro 3, pp. 83 - 98
Article type: Original article
Titles:
The distorsion of reality: review of the reality in The Kindly Ones, by Jonathan Littell
Aix-Marseille Université
Published at: 07.06.2013
Article status: Open
Licence: None
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