Guilt About the Past

Just as Bernhard Schlink's bestselling novels, "The Reader" and "Homecoming", tackle the burden of German guilt about events during the Second World War, so too the six essays that make up this compelling book view the long shadow of past guilt that is not just a German experience, but also a global one. Schlink explores the phenomenon of collective guilt and how it attaches to a whole society, not just to individual perpetrators. He considers: how to use the lesson of history to motivate individual moral behaviour; how to reconcile a guilt-laden past; the role of law in this process; and, how the theme of guilt influences his own fiction. Based on the Weidenfeld lectures he delivered at Oxford University in 2008, "Guilt" is essential reading for anyone wanting to understand how events of the past can affect a nation's future. Written in Bernhard Schlink's eloquent but accessible style, it taps in to worldwide interest in the aftermath of war and how to forgive and reconcile the various legacies of the past.

ISBN 1905636776   DEWEY edition DC22 ISBN13 9781905636778 (What's this?)   Pages 256 Publisher Beautiful Books Limited   Published in London Imprint Beautiful Books Limited   Height (mm) 198 Format Paperback   Width (mm) 129 Publication date 11 Feb 2010   Spine width (mm) 14 DEWEY 303.38731   Academic level General

"In a few short essays, he evokes with aching sensitivity the dilemmas of confronting a thoroughly complex and perplexing past. An elegant invocation of the power of telling stories about the past." - The Times "Now the scrupulous scholar and global bestseller has delved deeper into the still-toxic ground of historical memory, justice and responsibility. Guilt About the Past will not so much answer the questions that his fiction poses but prompt sharper and deeper thoughts about them." - The Independent "Schlink's thoughtful tone is throughout a pleasure." - The Guardian

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