The Life and Work of Günter Grass: Literature, History, Politics

265 Pages·2004·78.51 MB·English

by  Julian Preece (auth.)

The Lifeand Work of Gunter Grass
AlsobyJulian Preece
NINE LIVES:EthnicConflictinthePolish-UkrainianBorderlands(co-author)
BRADFORDSERIESOFCOLLOQUIAON CONTEMPORARY GERMAN LITERATURE(co-editor)
THE CAMBRIDGECOMPANIONTO KAFKA(editor)
The Life and Work of
Gunter Grass
Literature, History, Politics
Julian Preece
ReaderinGermanandComparativeLiteraryStudies
UniversityofKent
palgrave
macmillan
©julian Preece 2001, 2004
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
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permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90
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Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in hardcover 2001
First published in paperback 2004 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully
managed and sustained forest sources. Logging. pulping and manufacturing
processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the
country of origin.
ISBN 978-1-4039-1608-2 ISBN 978-0-230-28660-3 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230286603
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Preece, julian.
The life and work of Gunter Grass :literature, history, politics I julian
Preece.
p.cm.
1. Grass, Gunter, 1927-2. Authors, German-20th century
-Biography. I. Title.
PT2613.R338Z77 4 2003
838'.91409-dc22
[B]
2003061603
For my father
Alan Preece,
1931-97
Contents
ListofIllustrations ix
AcknowledgementsandNoteonTranslation x
Chronology xii
Map: ThechangingshapeofGermany, 1937-90 xviii
1 Life andArt 1
Biographies: real andimagined 1
Multi-talentedart student 19
Artistic cross-connections 25
Idealists, absolutists andcrypto-socialdemocrats: the plays 30
2 Lives in History 34
Aworldnovel: TheTinDrum 34
Oskar's Danzigrequiem 37
Scandal 47
CatandMouse: isPilenz guilty? 50
AfterKafka- after Mann 56
Brokenbiographies: Dog Years 58
3 The Turn to Politics 68
Afamous youngman 68
Abrokencritical tradition 74
'I advise you to vote ES-PE-DE' 80
Writersandpoliticians 89
The studentrevolt 93
'Imeantmyselfjust asmuch': Bertolt Brecht in the crossfirein
ThePlebeiansRehearsetheUprising 99
On cookingpigs' heads: ExhaustivelyQuestioned 106
'Burn, warehouse, burn!':LocalAnaesthetic 107
Sceptics andmelancholies:From theDiaryofaSnail 118
vii
viii Contents
4 The End ofHistoryMan 127
Astate ofthenationnovel: TheFlounder 127
'Social-DemocraticRabelais' 134
FalseMessiah on Father'sDay 137
Feminismand TheFlounder 141
Writers andthe state, 1647-1979: TheMeetinginTelgte 145
Orwell's decade 150
Acritical intellectualin thepost-modernera 153
Exotic encounters 157
Fiction againstthebomb: TheRat 161
5 WrongSide ofthe Wende 170
The galloping Weltgeist 170
Grassandthe GermanQuestion, 1953-89 176
Burying thepast or melting-potutopia: TheCalloftheToad 180
Executionofan author 187
Fonty/Fontane:brokenbiographies in TooFarAfield 194
Makingsense- findingtruth 202
Postscript: 1997-2002 208
Notes 224
GuidetoFurtherReading 233
Index 237
List ofIllustrations
1and2. WithHeinrichBollat theSPDConferencein 1972.(Copyright Visum/Rudi
Meisel.)
3. WithUte Grunert. (CopyrightVisum/RudiMeisel.)
4. Tastingsoup for TheFlounder. (CopyrightVisum/RudiMeisel.)
s. FontyandHoftallerfrom TooFarAfield. (CopyrightVisum/DirkReinartz.)
6. Manuscriptpage ofTooFarAfieldwithdrawing. (CopyrightVisum/DirkReinartz.)
7. The writerat work onhis old Olivetti. (CopyrightVisum/DirkReinartz.)
8. The artistwith pipeandsketchpad. (CopyrightVisum/DirkReinartz.)
ix
Acknowledgements and Note on
Translation
IdeasforthisbookhavebeengerminatingsinceIfirststartedtoreadGermanandtravel
to Germanyup to twentyyears ago.IfirstheardthenameGunterGrassat grammar
school in Taunton and my thanks go to Michael Robinson for encouraging my
interests in all things German. Denys Dyer took me through Grass's novels at
university;DavidConstantine,whofoundhecould notapproveofmyauthor'sironic
slipperiness, supervised my doctorate: my thanks go to both of them. My greatest
intellectualdebt isto DieterStolzwhowilldisagreewithmuchofwhathe readshere
butwithoutwhommyargumentswouldhavebeenmuchweaker.Othershave helped
in other ways: Stuart Taberner, Chloe Paver and Colin Riordan kindly let me see
unpublished research; Sean Allan shared his memories of Ralph Manheim; Susan
Tebbutalerted me to OttoPankok;JohnWieczorekhelpedwithJohannesBrobowski
andJ.H. Reidwith Heinrich Boll.My colleagues Osman Durrani, Martin Kane and
Elisabeth Demleitner have been generous with advice and materials. George Stern
demonstrated admirable thoroughness in proof-reading a draft of the manuscript,
which greatly improved the finished version. Iam also grateful to Gunter Grassfor
allowingme toviewhis correspondencewith Helen Wolffprior to itspublication.
My research has taken me to a number of libraries in the UKand Germany. In
particularIwouldliketomentiontheincomparablefacilitiesattheFreieUniversitat
in Berlin,theeverhelpfulstaffat theInstituteofGermanicStudiesandtheGerman
Historical Institute London and the Literaturarchiv in Sulzbach Rosenberg for
helpingme gain accessto the correspondencebetween GrassandWalterHollerer.
Somematerialused in thisbookhas beenpublishedelsewhere,albeitlyusuallyin
differentform. Iam grateful to the editors of the following books and journals for
permission to plunder the following chapters and articles: Arthur Williams and
StuartParkesfor'LiteratureandtheEndoftheWorld: GunterGrass's DieRattin',in
LiteratureontheThreshold:theGermanNovelinthe1980s(1990);theeditorsofJournal
oftheKafkaSocietyofAmerica17(1993)for'The DangerofReachingThirtyforFranz
Kafka,Josef K.andOskarMatzerath:KafkaesqueMotifs inDieBlechtrommel';to The
German Monitor 47 (2000) for 'Seven Theses on DerFall Fonty'; and to the Modem
LanguageReview90 (1995)for'Sexual-TextualPolitics:theTransparencyoftheMale
Narrativein DerButtby GunterGrass'.
Quotations from primarysources are with the kind permission of the publishers:
the works of Gunter Grass, copyright Steidl Verlag;Max Frisch} DieTagebucher and
Hans Mayer, EinDeutscheraufWiderruf, copyright Suhrkamp Verlag;Marcel Reich
Ranicki,MeinLeben,ArnulfBaring,Machtwechsel, copyrightDeutscheVerlags-Anstalt;
Peter Riihmkorf, TABU1 and DieJahre die ihr kennt, copyright Rowohlt Verlag;
Peter Ruhmkorf, IchhabeLustimweitenFelde ...,copyrightWallsteinVerlag;Peter
Schneider, Lenz, copyright Europaische Verlagsanstalt/Rotbuch Verlag; Hans
WernerRichter, 1mEtablissementderSchmetterlinge, copyrightHanserVerlag.
x