German 337 - Gunter Grass

Since the overwhelming success of his first novel The Tin Drum (1959), his Nobel Prize in Literature (1999), and his admission that as a 17-year old, he joined the Nazi-SS (2006), Grass has been one of the most original and provocative contemporary writers. He was also an outspoken public intellectual. Often headily evocative in his rhythmic prose, the author has probed the development of Germany from Nazism through Cold War division to unification with a relentlessly vivid eye. We will read Grass primarily as a novelist, but also trace the correlations between his political engagement and his fiction, poetry, and art.  Readings include The Tin Drum, Cat and Mouse, Dog Years, Writing After Auschwitz, and The Call of the Toad. Selections from his poetry, art and movies.  Conducted in German.

Requisite: GERM 210 or equivalent. Spring semester. Professor Brandes.