Łaskawe i tragedia grecka. Makabryczny ciąg dalszy Oresteji Ajschylosa
Les Bienveillantes [The Kindly Ones] and Greek Tragedy. Macabre Continuation of Aeschylus' Oresteia

Summary/Abstract: Florence Mercier-Leca interprets The Kindly Ones, Jonathan Littell’s novel through the intertextual references it contains: most importantly the myth of Orestes and Aeschylus’s tragedy created on its basis. The intertextual reading forces us to focus on the family story of the Nazi Max Aue, his incestuous love for his sister Una, his hate towards his mother, and finally her and his stepfather’s murder. The author claims that Littell plays with us a game full of wrong tracks. We think that Aue is the culprit, for the title of the novel suggests we treat that character as the new Orestes (matricide), later chased by new Eumenides (The Kindly Ones), represented in the novel by the policemen Clemens and Weser. But did it really happen? Mythological references are also key to the interpretation of the vision of the Holocaust included in the book. In both cases (the private scheme and the mass murders) nothing justifies those actions apart from the irrational drive which brought them about. Thus, they cannot be judged the way Orestes’s crime was—The Kindly Ones, as Memory, will keep on hunting the perpetrators for ever.

• Details
• Contents