“Nichts als der Tod und die Satire”

Abstract

Grimmelshausen’s Simplicius Simplicissimus, the classic novel of the Thirty Years War, is a unique critique in an exuberant narrative form. The double perspective (the hero narrates, as an old man, his own life), the doubt as a principle, irony as the fundamental tone – these are his main strategies to analyse the ambivalence of human behaviour as well as to check critically social models of a more peaceful society. Grimmelshausen refuses any philosophical, political or theological justification of violence. However, his irony, his humour and his narrative power make the lecture of his work a pleasure until today. The comparison with a modern African novel, Ahmadou Kouroumas Allah Is Not Obliged, reveals similarities as well as differences and proves one more time the topicality and constant relevance of this Baroque novel.