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Article: Magdalena Sunderin.
- Article from:
- World Literature Today
- Article date:
- September 22, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1996 University of Oklahoma. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The biblical Mary Magdalene represents the fallen woman who sought and obtained Jesus' forgiveness for her sins. Lilian Faschinger's Magdalena Leitner, by Austrian society's standards also a fallen woman, abducts a Catholic priest at gunpoint while he is saying mass in order to confess her sins and receive absolution. (She feels that only an Austrian priest could fully comprehend the twisted reasoning of her Carinthian mind.) In contrast to her namesake, Magdalena Leitner appears unrepentant; indeed, she seems to revel in the pleasures of the flesh, and her confession has less to do with penance - in the end, she is forced to flee before the priest can speak the words "ego ...