Günter Grass, Hundejahre [Dog Years]

Sigrid Mayer (University of Wyoming)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.4.1: German-language Writing and Culture: Germany, 500-present.
Vol. editors: Gerhard P. Knapp (University of Utah), Jennifer Marston William (Purdue University), Herbert Rowland (Purdue University), Jill E. Twark (East Carolina University)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1963

Places

Germany (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Dog Years

is one of the most influential and important novels written since the Second World War. A work of what Heinrich Böll called “rubble literature” [work to come out of the rubble of German reconstuction], it offers a darkly-brilliant, satiric and comic commentary on the German people's understanding of the rise of fascism and of wartime events. Loosely modelled on Grass's own autobiographical experiences, first as a school boy in National Socialist Germany, then as a member of the Hitler youth and airforce auxiliary, the tale weaves a densely-allusive and complex allegorical thread of oddly-patterned and estranged events that gather around the lives of humans (often allegorised as scarecrows) and dogs (often standing for humans). Through its comic scenes it captures the banal…

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4908 words

Citation: Mayer, Sigrid. "Hundejahre". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 June 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=9353, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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