Reactions to Bernhard Schlink’s international hit The Reader could not have been more divergent. Choruses of both praise and outrage gave way to a hot
debate in the feuilletons. Schlink was accused of exculpating his female protagonist, Hanna Schmitz, in a manner considered offensive. Inspired by Iserian reception aesthetics, this survey takes a look at opinions reproaching Schlink for having generated sympathy for a Nazi, and examines his proposals on how to deal with the banality of evil.

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