Günter Wilhelm Grass (German: [ˈɡʏntɐ ˈɡʁas]; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature.
He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). As a teenager, he served as a drafted soldier from late 1944 in the Waffen-SS and was taken prisoner of war by US forces at the end of the war in May 1945. He was released in April 1946. Trained as a stonemason and sculptor, Grass began writing in the 1950s. In his fiction, he frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood.
Grass is best known for his first novel, The Tin Drum (1959), a key text in European magic realism. It was the first book of his Danzig Trilogy, the other two being Cat and Mouse and Dog Years. His works are frequently considered to have a left-wing political dimension, and Grass was an active supporter of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). The Tin Drum was adapted as a film of the same name, which won both the 1979 Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. In 1999, the Swedish Academy awarded him the Nobel Prize in Literature, praising him as a writer "whose frolicsome black fables portray the forgotten face of history".
"Grass har begået et sprogligt mesterværk og en intellektuel bedrift." – Peter Poulsen i Information
Günter Grass (f. 1927), oprindelig uddannet grafiker og billedhugger. Har skrevet adskillige romaner, bl.a. Bliktrommen (da. 1961), Flynderen (da. 1978), Kat og mus (da. 1963), Hundeår (da. 1965), Lokalbedrøvet (da. 1970), Af en snegls dagbog (da. 1973), Rottesken (da. 1986) og Række tunge (da. 1989). Grass modtog Sonningprisen i 1996.
En længere historie er historien om østberlineren Theo Wuttke, kaldet Fonty, en forsagt, indadvendt, distant og drømmende helt; og hans modpol, den evige følgesvend og „dagognatskygge“ Hoftaller, tidligere Stasiagent og stikker. Wuttkes kælenavn, Fonty, dækker over hans store interesse, 1900-tals forfatteren Theodor Fontane. Fonty er født på nøjagtig samme dato som Fontane, præcis 100 år efter, i samme by, og hans liv former sig som en mystisk gentagelse af den gamle forfatters liv. Ligesom Fonty er tilskuer til det ‘nye’ Tysklands genforening oplevede Fontane både den borgelige revolution i 1948 og rigets samling i 1871. – En kras kommentar til Tysklands genforening.
„Grass’ bog er en modig påmindelse til de sejrende vesttyskere, om at enheden er skrøbelig, og at der ikke er nogen grund til at hovere. „En længere historie“ er en sprudlende og underfundig Tysklandskrønike.“ – Jes Stein Pedersen i Det fri Aktuelt
Shop
