Günter Grass's Literary Nationalism

Abstract

The German novelist and Nobel laureate Günter Grass investigated the connection between nationhood, language, and politics throughout his literary career. In particular, he advocated a form of “literary nationhood” called Kulturnation (cultural nation) that conflates a nation's letters with its national identity. Grass believed that this identity served as a form of resistance to the nation-state and could force the German people to acknowledge the Holocaust. In going about this alternative nationality, Grass utilized what he called the “worm's-eye view” to align a literary imagination from the perspective of history's “victims” rather than its “makers.” The result of this literary methodology are two novels: The Meeting at Telgte (Das Treffen in Telgte) and Too Far Afield (Ein weites Feld). This article traces the development of the Kulturnation in these works and discusses its implications for politics, with special attention given to the tension between language and politics.