Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T21:24:17.866Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

5 - Günter Grass’s ‘Danzig Quintet’

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2010

Stuart Taberner
Affiliation:
University of Leeds
Get access

Summary

This chapter explores the interconnections between five of Grass's literary works, extending John Reddick's long-standing and influential notion of the 'Danzig Trilogy', The Tin Drum (1959), Cat and Mouse (1961) and Dog Years (1963), to that of the 'Danzig Quintet', through the inclusion of two later works, Local Anaesthetic (1969) and Crabwalk (2002). The first section of the chapter examines how the quintet is bound together through an extended family network of characters, resulting in a richly interwoven set of texts that moves back and forth between the past and the present, as well as the private and the public spheres of individual memory and history. The second and third sections explore the dual conceptualisation of memory within the texts (as a form of testimony on the one hand, and as a representation open to distortion on the other) in the context of the larger issue of engaging with the National Socialist past, while the final section uses Umberto Eco's notion of an 'inferential walk' to examine how the interactions between the quintet's narratives shapes the reader's relation to the texts. 'The Danzig Quintet' Günter Grass's The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, Dog Years, Local Anaesthetic and Crabwalk were written over a period of forty years, with the first of the works appearing in 1959 and the last in 2002.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×