Daan Rutten
Utrecht University, Netherlands
Download articlePublished in: Current Issues in European Cultural Studies; June 15-17; Norrköping; Sweden 2011
Linköping Electronic Conference Proceedings 62:49, p. 475-484
Published: 2011-11-22
ISBN: 978-91-7519-993-1
ISSN: 1650-3686 (print), 1650-3740 (online)
Almost three decades after the publication of ‘Male fantasies’; the fascinating cultural and psychological inquiry into the minds of German Freikorps officers in the interwar period by cultural sociologist Klaus Theweleit; the American-French author Jonathan Littell wrote the bestseller novel The Kindly Ones (original: Les Bienveillantes). The novel recounts the experiences of the fictional SS officer Max Aue and Littell is clearly well informed through former historical and cultural research; and especially through the research of Theweleit. Still; the novel The Kindly Ones rattled the cage after it was released in 2006. The book managed to win two important French awards; though multiple literary critics reviewed the book in shock; criticizing the novel with adjectives as monstrous and perverse. Why is the aesthetic fantasy; apparently; more forceful and appalling than the truth?
Blumenfeld; S. (2006). Littell interview with Samuel Blumenfeld. 17 november Le Monde des Livres. Translation: http://thekindlyones.wordpress.com/littell-interview-with-samuelblumenfeld/ (From official blog: http://thekindlyones.wordpress.com/).
Clark; T. (1996). Contradictory Passion: Inspiration in Blanchot’s “The Space of Literature”. SubStance 79 Vol. 25 no. 1: 46–61.
De Duve; T. (1996). Kant after Duchamp. Cambridge; MA: MIT Press.
Deleuze; G. & Guattari; F. (2008). A Thousand plateaus. Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Translated and foreword by Brian Massumi. London/New York: Continuum. Original: (1980) Mille Plateaux; Capitalisme et Schizophrenie.Éditions de Minuit.
Golsan; R. J. (2010). The American Reception of Max Aue. SubStance 121; Vol. 39; No. 1: 174–183.
Heap; J. L. (1981). Free-phantasy; language; and sociology: a criticism of the Methodist theory of essence. Human Studies 4 1. Vol. 4; 299–311.
Littell; J. (2009). Het droge en het vochtige. Een korte verkenning op fascistisch grondgebied. Met een nawoord van Klaus Theweleit. Amsterdam / Antwerpen: Arbeiderspers. Original: (2008) Le sec et l’humide. Paris: Éditions Gallimard / L’arbalete gallimard.
Littell; J. (2010). The Kindly Ones. Translated from French by Charlotte Mandell. London: Vintage Books. Original: Littell; J. (2006) Les Bienveillantes. Paris: Editions Gallimard.
Rancière; J. (2009). The Aesthetic Unconscious. New Jersey: JWA.
Rossman; S. (1993). The author’s Care for Himelf. On Friedrich Nietzsche; Michel Foucault and Niklas Luhmann. Florence: European University Institute Badia Fiesolana.
Schinkel; W. (2007). Denken in een tijd van sociale hypochondrie. Aanzet tot een theorie voorbij de maatschappij. Kampen: Klement.
Schinkel; W. (2010). The Autopoiesis of the Artworld after the End of Art. Cultural Sociology 4(2): 267–290.