Love and Other Flights – Legal Subtexts and the Law as a Strategy of Reader Guidance in Bernhard Schlink's Liebesfluchten. Issue 2 (3rd May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Stürmer, Franziska; Meier, Patrick
• Is Part Of: Law and literature. Volume 28:Issue 2(2016)
• Page Start: 255
• Page End: 275
• Publication Date: 2016-05-03
• Subjects: Bernhard Schlink -- Liebesfluchten -- Flights of Love -- law -- legal philosophy -- guilt -- German history; Law and literature -- Periodicals; Droit et littérature -- Périodiques; Law and literature; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 340.05
• DOI: 10.1080/1535685X.2015.1092782
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1535-685X

Abstract

Abstract: This article investigates the importance Bernhard Schlink's profession as a lawyer bears on his writing concerning both content and style. In an exemplary analysis of three of his stories – "Girl with Lizard, " "A Little Fling, " and "The Other Man" (all published in Flights of Love, 2002) – it will become evident how Schlink addresses legal issues and makes use of legal philosophical problems as well as strategically playing out legal rhetoric to bring home his message: let bygones be bygones. Thus, although his stories appear to start out as narrative investigations into a problematic (German) past, they eventually turn out to be a series of flights from confrontation with this past.