Dimension2: Günter Grass

GRASS, Günter: Günter Grass was born in Danzig in 1927. A multi-talented writer and artist,he is undoubtedly one of Germany's major novelists—perhaps even its most important living novelist—whose contribution to world literature was recognized in 1999 with the Nobel prize. In 1959, with the publication of Die Blechtrommel [The Tin Drum], he helped German literature once again join the ranks of world literature. Anong his many works, Der Butt [1977; The Flounder] and Die Rättin [1986; The Rat] stand out: Der Butt attempts to write the history of patriarchy overtaking matriarchy, spanning several millenia. Die Rättin presents dueling narrations in an apocalyptic post-nuclear-holocaust scenario. Günter Grass received the Grand Literary Prize of the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts on May 5, 1994. On that occasion, he gave a speech in which he dealt mainly with contemporary literary criticism. Always a controversial and political author, whose political convictions have become more pronounced over the years, Grass has drawn quite some criticism; therefore, he knows first-hand about the subject of his speech on literary criticism, the translation of which (published in Volume 2, Number 1) is based on the version published in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung, May 8/9, 1994. He discusses this criticism in the interview published in Volume 7, Number 1, which focuses on Ein weites Feld [1995; Too Far Afield] that deals with issues of German reunification.

About the Secondary Works from a Primary Perspective--A Speech on Literary Criticism: Vol. 2, No. 1

For Example Calcutta: Speech at the Club of Rome in June 1989: Vol. 2, No. 3

The Author and His Undercover Agent: Vol. 7, No. 1


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