The Reflection Of Literature In Germany

This thesis is aimed at demonstrating the status of the Reader, a novel by Bernhard Schlink, in the postwar German Reflective Literature, namely, a work of inheritance and development.Based on the timeline, the thesis lists representative literary works of postwar German Reflective Literature, and analyzes how the Reader has inherited and developed the postwar German Reflective Literature in three aspects, subject, theme and method. In terms of the subject, the Reader touches on the heavy topics commonly seen in the traditional German Reflective Literature, such as the war, persecution and exile of the Jews, while using the love stories of some ordinary people as its main line throughout the novel, telling a serious topic with easy love stories. The ordinary people in the story are common German people who took part in evil deeds during the the Third Reich, and they reflect a complicated human nature; In terms of the theme, the Reader reveals the fascist crimes and voices criticism of wars, while reflecting on history, responsibility for the crimes, inter-generation relationship, justice and the human nature. Compared with previous German Reflective Literature works, the Reader has a richer and more meaningful theme; As for the method, through memories and retrospection, the novel brings readers back to the era of the Third Reich, so they could reflect on historical issues. The Reader’s narrative style well corresponds with readers’mentality, and arouses their curiosity through creating suspenses and enhancing its readability and tensity; In the meanwhile, the narrative language is closer to the general public.The author’s experiences as a judge and a law professor have influenced his thinking on history and crimes as well as responsibility for crimes. He opted to write the history in a way more easily acceptable to young people, so that Germany’s young generation could continue the refections on the crimes of the Third Reich. In this sense, the Reader has played the important role of inheriting and developing the German Reflective Literature.Since the Reader, some German literary works have begun to present the Germans as the war victims, which breaks the long-standing taboo and the set pattern of not mentioning the pains in the German Reflective Literature. The change of time, historical perspective, writers and the readership and their aesthetic flavor is the in-depth reason behind the changes in the German Reflective Literature.