Zur Erinnerung an deutsche Opfer: Geschichte, Zeugnis und Fiktion in Grass’ Novelle Im Krebsgang

Abstract

Analysing a novelette by G. Grass, the author points out a recent tendency of German literature on World War II. Several new books on this subject focalize, not on guilt, but rather on the suffering of German population. Grass’s text shows a particular respect for historical facts and allows the reader to easily distinguish between factual and fictional elements. In the fictional parts the author imitates the genre of testimony and qualifies, by these means, the novelette for collective memory. The fictional action also contains political arguments that explain, why Germans should commemorate their victims: for the sake of truth and emotional balance, and in order to find a way out of the circuit of the violence, perpetuated through generations. Grass’s book can be seen as part of a tradition of representing historical events, at the service of a humanistic and enlightened collective memory, which, in Germany, has its roots in Schiller’s dramatic works.