'Henne ensam lagen fällde' : zur literarischen Verhandlung der Kindstötung und der Frage nach der (Mit-)Schuld der Väter

This article examines the literary representation of infanticides in Scandinavian literary texts from the 19th and 20th centuries. While most research on infanticide addresses the problematic situation of the mother who has killed her newborn child, the role of the father has suffered unwarranted neglect. It is therefore the purpose of this article to give an overview of central Scandinavian texts treating infanticides and to investigate more deeply how the father’s responsibility or guilt is discussed. Another important question is how law and justice are thematized in the texts. It will be argued that the literary texts take into account the fathers‘ (joint) guilt in the child’s death more often than commonly assumed. The article also shows that the literary texts do not take the androcentric perspective of the governing legislation for granted, but rather call it into question. It can thus be said that the literary texts on infanticide are implicitly critical of social institutions and legal norms for being ignorant of their own shortcomings