Günter Grass und die Musik by Anselm Weyer

Abstract

906 Reviews Moeller contributes a second essay focusing on 'Victims inUniform' and analysing threeGerman war filmsof the I950s; Paul Cooke also focuses on film,but traces a trajectory from theearlyHeimatfilm through the critical impetus ofNew German Ci nema to 'a cinema of consensus' (p. 9I) as represented by Sonke Wortmann's football melodrama, Das Wunder von Bern (2003). Helmut Schmitz exposes German vic timhood as a subterranean agenda of theHistorikerstreit of the I98os and Bill Niven explores how theAllied bombing ofDresden has been figured in theart and literature of theGDR and on into thepresent. A cluster of essays then address what might be broadly termed a 'decentring' of theHolocaust discourse within public commemorative politics.With reference to re cently accessed files,Pertti Ahonen demonstrates how the killings at theBerlin Wall were ruthlessly instrumentalized by both sides during the Cold War; Andrew H. Beattie explores how the problematic 'anti-totalitarian consensus' (p. i6o) of I990S public debate is set to issue into amore diversified commemorative landscape. Stuart Taberner also explores this same problem with reference to awide range of recent literatureand attests theeffective 'normalization' of aGerman culture thatcan address German victimhood within the context ofGerman perpetration as part of a 'new in clusiveness' (p. i68). Two pieces focus on recent external triggers.Andreas Huyssen argues that theGerman peace movement's opposition towar in Iraq reignited debates about airwar legacies closer to home and triggered a 'geopolitical nostalgia' (p. I92) inEurope that isdirected explicitly against theUS. Karolina von Oppen and Stefan Wolff explore the rising importance of theGerman expellee organizations against the background of theKosovo conflict and of EU enlargement. Finally, in trying to understand the low profile of professional historians in these debates, Stefan Berger also sketches what he calls the 'Europeanisation of theHolocaust' (p. 224), which, he argues, might allow Germans to rediscover theirpast steering a path somewhere between the universalization of victimhood and nationalist apologia. As is clear, the great strength of the volume is itsgenuinely interdisciplinary ap proach. It would have been fascinating, though, to see one thingmore fully ana lysed: the relationship between 'familyalbum' and 'encyclopaedia' (Harald Welzer, Sabine Moller, and Karilina Tschuggnall, 'Opa wvarkeinNazi': Nationalsozialismus undHolocaust imFamiliengeddchtnis (Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer, 2002)), or 'active' and 'archival' memory (Aleida Assmann, Erinnerungsraume: Formen undWandlungen des kulturellen Geddchtnisses (Munich: Beck, I999)), to cite the current historical and philosophical buzzwords respectively (also referenced in the volume). Overall, the volume does not really address themechanisms by which private memory actually becomes public discourse, and the role culture might play as potential intermediary in thatprocess. However, the (almost) uniformly excellent standard of contributions, aimed at an anglophone readership, the inclusion of maps and a 'Chronology of Events', along with a characteristically nuanced and thought-provoking introduction by Bill Niven, mean that this volume is themost rewarding account of this issue to date. A must forall those interested in this area. NEW COLLEGE, OXFORD KAREN LEEDER Giinter Grass und dieMusik. By ANSELM WEYER. (Kolner Studien zur Literaturwis senschaft, i6) Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang. 2007. 307 pp. ESI .5. ISBN 978 3-63I-55593-4. Although Gunter Grass iswell known as amaster ofmany crafts, this doctoral dis sertation is the firststudy to provide an overview of his eclectic use ofmusic. The broad title encompasses the very differentmusical aspects and influences,which the author presents in threemain parts. MLR, I03.3, 2008 907 Part Iprovides some biographical details, fromGrass's early listening tooperas on the 'Volksempfiinger' to his experience as a band member of a jazz group. Anselm Weyer discusses some ofGrass's major works, startingwith the function of thedrum inDie Blechtrommel, the use of leitmotif technique inHundejahre, and the parallels between Hundejahre andWagner's Ring desNibelungen. In his brief chapter on Das Treffen inTelgte,Weyer attempts to explain why themusician Heinrich Schiitz must be seen as one of the narrative's main characters. This is followed by a discussion ofGrass's use of palindromes in Im Krebsgang. Weyer explores the construction of Grass's latestnovella and his concept of 'Vergegenkunft', and puts both in thecontext ofmusical theory.This firstpart is the least original, and the author's claim thathis approach invitesnew ways of readingGrass's works isnot always convincing. Never theless, itdoes provide...