"Grass auseinandergeschrieben:" Günter Grass's Hundejahre and Mimesis. (5th February 2013)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Minden, Michael
• Is Part Of: German quarterly. Volume 86:Number 1(2013:Spring)
• Page Start: 25
• Page End: 42
• Publication Date: 2013-02-05
• Subjects: German language -- Study and teaching -- Periodicals; Letterkunde; Duits; Allemand (Langue) -- Étude et enseignement -- Périodiques; Littérature allemande -- Histoire et critique -- Périodiques; Enseignement; Allemand (Langue); Culture allemande; Littérature allemande; Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); 430.7
• DOI: 10.1111/gequ.10166
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0016-8831

Abstract

<abstract abstract-type="main" xml:lang="en"> <title> <x xml:space="preserve">Abstract</x> </title> <p>The aim of this article is to contribute to an assessment of Grass's achievement as an artist in the condition of post‐war German democratic capitalism. Using the concept of <italic>Mimesis</italic> as it is developed by Adorno and Horkheimer in the <italic>Dialektik der Aufklärung</italic>, the article offers an analysis of Grass's neglected masterpiece <italic>Hundejahre</italic>, and attempts particularly to explain the peculiar and perplexing motif of scarecrows at its center. The results of this reading suggest how Grass found an aesthetically adequate response to the Holocaust for one shamed by it. At the same time, he fought on a second front, in defense of the literary imagination against the effects of celebrity in the media. In finding means to set free the energies of <italic>Mimesis</italic>, Grass of necessity engaged with those of <italic>Ratio</italic> too, and produced a text which taps the wellsprings of creativity without falling victim to either irrationalism or complacency.</p> </abstract>