MARGINALIA DO RECEPCJI BIOGRAFII I DZIEŁ GÜNTERA GRASSA W POLSCE
Marginal Notes about Günter Grass

Summary/Abstract: After the publication in 1959 of Günter Grass’s seminal novel, The Tin Drum, and then later, in 1983, with its translation into Polish, the life and work of the German writer garnered much interest from many Polish literary critics, journalists, and Polish scholars of German literature. By the 1960s, however, the first Polish texts and opinions had already appeared while 1982 saw the publication of the first Polish book about Grass. Although one Polish scholar of German, Norbert Honsza, compared G. Grass to T. Mann, most comments made by Poles about Grass are of an apologetic character. In the 1988 publication, Polskie pytania o Grassa [Polish Questions about Grass], (editor, M. Janion), its authors analyze and criticize Grass’s attitude towards what is referred to as the “Polish subject”. For example, they point out and describe the author’s sympathy for a rat, which Grass presents in his drawings and in the novel, The Rat, published in 1986 (Polish translation in 1993). Moreover, both Grass’s confession about his military service in the Waffen SS as well as his poem about Israeli armament have caused flurries of significant reactions.

• Details
• Contents