Abstract
In this concluding chapter, the author foregrounds the role of the reader. She argues that perpetrator narratives encode and enforce an active reader response, forcing the reader to confront urgent questions about his or her responsibilities in the real world. The chapter returns to the problem of empathy. Ultimately, it argues that literature provides a space in which it is possible to engage with those we would choose to believe are different from ourselves. This process is essential in sustaining the narratives of perpetrator fiction, but it is also responsible for producing many of the tensions that such texts create.
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Notes
- 1.
American editions translate the title as Every Man Dies Alone (Jeder Stirbt Für Sich Allein in the original German).
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Pettitt, J. (2017). Returning to the Role of the Reader. In: Perpetrators in Holocaust Narratives. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52575-4_7
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