Shame, considered an emotion of self-management, is commonly regarded an agent of society. It acts within the subject and at the same time against the subject by degrading the self-esteem. Blushing for shame and a sudden faltering in the flow of action are visual signs which stigmatize the self in the name of common rules of decency. The discussion of how feelings of shame generally operate within society is what scientific disciplines such as anthropology, psychoanalysis and sociology deal with. Reviewing Kleist, Sacher-Masoch, Kafka, Schnitzler, Jelinek and Genazino, the author demonstrates that literature is capable to reflect feelings of shame on two levels: an emotional level and an intellectual level.weiterlesen