Bernard Schlink

Bernard Schlink - Should we feel guilty about the past?

Should we feel guilty and responsible for past crimes? Should we apologise for the past? Leading international jurist and writer, Bernhard Schlink, author of the international bestseller, The Reader, explores the phenomenon of guilt and how it attaches itself to a whole society. His new book, Guilt about the Past, offers 'a dignified reflection on the politics of memory across generations and on what it means to be marked by an extreme experience of trauma, whether as a victim or perpetrator'. In this interview, he considers how to use the lessons of history to motivate individual moral behaviour and reconcile a guilt-laden past, lessons of which are as applicable to Bristol as they are to his native Germany and elsewhere. His interview will be followed by a showing of the film of his international bestseller The Reader with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes.