Adams, Jenni. Reading (as) Violence in Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly Ones

Representations of the perpetrator’s perspective in Holocaust literature are often
controversial, as is evident in the debate surrounding Jonathan Littell’s The
Kindly Ones, a recent novel written from the perspective of an SS officer. This
essay examines more closely both the capacity of Littell’s novel to unsettle
readers and the ethical status of its techniques, with a focus on the means by
which The Kindly Ones directs attention towards the process and practice of
reading. While acknowledging readers’ and critics’ doubts about the novel, it
explores the ways in which its adoption of this disturbing narrative perspective
in fact carries a profound potential to mobilise readers’ ethical and critical
sensibilities.

Jenni Adams, “Reading (as) Violence in Jonathan Littell’s The Kindly
Ones”, Holocaust Studies, 17:2-3 (2011): 27-50.