Flatfish

Author: Günter Grass, translated by Feng Yalin and Feng Weiping
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2003-05-01
Features: The Tin Drum is not only a cultural history and a history of women's liberation that began in the Middle Ages, but also a history of human nutrition and hunger. Like other works by Grass, especially the Danzig Trilogy, the plot of The Tin Drum is characterized by the simultaneous presence of reality and fantasy, and the interweaving of narration and commentary. Works by Günter Grass. Günter Grass was born in Danzig in 1927 and is a renowned contemporary German writer who has won numerous international literary awards. In 1999, he was even awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in Literature. The Tin Drum is another successful masterpiece by Grass following The Tin Drum. The novel has a fairy-tale quality, using the framework of the Grimm fairy tale The Fisherman and His Wife, but subverts it. It depicts nine important stages of human development in a unique artistic form, revealing the process by which dominant males create violence, pursue power, and ultimately reach their downfall, while exploring the role of women without a voice in driving true progress—specifically, the elimination of hunger. The cooks from nine different eras are vividly portrayed, and the story incorporates numerous historical figures and events. Reality and fantasy coexist, and narration and commentary intertwine, recreating the tumultuous changes in European history and, in a sense, depicting a of Western civilization's history.