Abstract
Surprise recipient of both the Prix Goncourt and the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française for 2006, Jonathan Littell's Les Bienveillantes has provoked considerable controversy since its appearance. The fictional memoir of Maximilien Aue, an idealistic young intellectual and National Socialist by conviction, the novel charts its protagonist's career as an SS offıcer firstly in the death-squads of the Eastern Front, then as a logistics analyst in the labour-camps intended to support the faltering German war effort. Max's personal life is no less turbulent and the emotional traumas caused by his father's early disappearance and his incestuous desire for his own twin sister, cited as the root cause of his homosexuality, are compounded during the war by a near fatal head-wound and serious illness. This emotional instability is fertile ground for the development of further psychological problems, and the brutality and alienation which Max experiences in the course of...
Published Version
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