This is the first study to discuss the affinity between Grass’s complete works and baroque literature. Grass’s employment of baroque literature is of particular interest because it takes up a tradition from which German literature has long broken away.
Alexander Weber’s argument moves from an outline of general thematic parallels in the early works to an analysis of the conscious use of baroque literature in Der Butt and Das Treffen in Telgte. He offers both a close reading of Grass and general reflections on how a past literary tradition can be adopted by a modern writer.
The study focuses on the themes of vanity, carpe diem, and Senecan Stoicism in the early works; it discusses parallels between the rhetorical structure of the courtly-historical novel and Der Butt and traces the artist’s melancholy and baroque allegories in Der Butt and Das Treffen in Telgte.
This book, originally published in paperback in 1995 under the ISBN 978-0-901286-50-5, was made Open Access in 2025 as part of the MHRA Revivals programme.
This study tries to show the complexity of the relationship between Günter Grass's writings and baroque literature. It is not simply an investigation of the influence of baroque literature on Grass's works. Because of the great variety of links between Grass and seventeenth-century literature ranging from thematic and structural affinities to the skilful use of baroque literary techniques, this study argues on several different levels. However different the methods employed may be, it generally works on the assumption that baroque literature provides a context which can help us to understand Grass's writings. None the less it does not suggest that the use of baroque literature is the only key to understanding Grass's texts. My aim is to view his works from a certain angle in order to make a contribution to a general picture of Grass's writings, which no single study of this kind can draw.
To see how to cite this article in standard MHRA style, follow this link.
To see how to cite this article in author-date MHRA style, follow this link.
43-64
Chapter Two: Excursus — Der Butt and the Courtly-Historical Novel Alexander Weber doi:10.59860/td.c8c96fc
The parallels between Die Blechtrommel and the picaresque novel have become a well researched area within Grass criticism. Here we make similar comparisons between Der Butt and the courtly-historical novel. It is a main feature of the picaresque novel that its hero encounters a series of adventures; thus it has a chain-like structure leading from one episode to another. Der Butt and the courtly-historical novel, by contrast, are structured like a web, consisting of a sophisticated network of framework plot and flashbacks. This chapter shows that Grass's later novels tend towards ever growing complexity, suggesting a development from a 'Reihenstruktur' in Die Blechtrommel to a 'Wabenstruktur' in Der Butt.
Generally speaking relations between Grass's works and baroque literature are twofold. On the one hand, there are parallels or affinities between the structure and subject of Grass's writings and baroque literature. The comparison with baroque literature is used as a means to throw light on the texture of Grass's works. On the other hand, we have Grass's deliberate use of baroque literature as a past literary tradition. This conclusion asks what artistic, conceptual and thematic problems are solved through the employment of baroque literature. In other words, what is the purpose of those passages in Grass's writings which deal with the baroque period?
This title was first published by W. S. Maney & Son Ltd for the Modern Humanities Research Association and the Institute of Germanic Studies but rights to it are now held by Modern Humanities Research Association and the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies.
