Approaches to Teaching Grass’s The Tin Drum

The career of Günter Grass began dramatically in 1959, with the publication of his first novel. The Tin Drum brought instant fame to the thirty-two-year-old author and led to his receiving the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. Translated into dozen of languages, the novel has sold over four million copies worldwide. Its status as a major text of postwar German literature, however, has not diminished its provocative nature. In both, style and content, it continues to challenge scholars, teachers, and students.

	This volume. Like others in the MLA series Approaches to Teaching World Literature, is divided into two parts. Part 1, "Materials," provides the instructor with bibliographic information om the text, critical studies, and audiovisual and Internet resources. Part 2, "Approaches," contains eighteen essays on teaching The Tin Drum, including three that discuss Völker Schlöndorff’s 1979 film adaptation of the novel. Some of the topics covered are the historical context (Nazism, World War II, the Holocaust), Oskar Matzerath as an unreliable narrator, the imagery (e.g. eels, the Virgin Mary), the use of German fairy tales, and how Grass's satirical treatment of Germany speaks to postwar generations.
	CONTENTS
	Preface to the Series………………………………………	ix
	Preface to the Volume…………………………………….	xi
	PART ONE: MATERIALS Monika Shafi
	Editions and Translations…………………………………. German Edition English Translation	3
	Further Readings for Students……………………………..	3
	The Instructor’s Library………………………………….... Biography Background Studies Critical Studies Film Pedagogical Tools Günter Grass Archives Audiovisual and Electronic Resources	4
	PART TWO: APPROACHES
	Introduction…………………………………………………	13
	Historical Contexts
	*Modes of History in The Tin Drum…………………..* *Julian Preece*	15
	The Tin Drum as Historical Fiction………………….. *Todd Kontje*	31
	Resistance in the Borderlands: Outsiders and Opposition in The Tin Drum………………………….. *Patricia Pollock Brodsky*	43
	"Even Wallpaper Has a Better Memory Than Ours": Personal and Public Memory in The Tin Drum……… *Timothy B. Malchow*	56
	Narrative and Reading Strategies
	"Five Hundred Sheets of Writing Paper": Getting Your Students Ready for the Big Book……... *Irene Kacandes*	67
	Narration in The Tin Drum: A Quirky Narrator in Search of the Truth…………… *Sabine Gross*	75
	Triumph of the Creative Dwarf: How Grass Uses Oskar To Defy the Power of Evil… *Alfred D. White*	90
	"But Even Herr Matzerath Is Unable to Keep His Story Running in a Straight Line": The Role of the Secondary Narrators in Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum……………………………………………….... *Katharina Hall*	103
	From Sea to Soup: Teaching the Image of the Eel…. *Richard E. Schade*	116
	The Conflicting Claims of Fiction and History in The Tin Drum: Humor, Fairy Tale, and Myth…… *Jane Curran*	125
	"Unsereins muß auf die Bühne": The Tin Drum and the Stage………………………… *Elizabeth C. Hamilton*	138
	Teaching Issues of Race and Gender
	Teaching The Tin Drum from the Perspective of Jewish Cultural Studies and Holocaust Studies…….. *Dagmar C. G. Lorenz*	150
	*Teaching Race in Günter Grass’s The Tin Drum…..* *Peter Arnds*	164
	"The Black Witch": Gender, Sexuality, and Violence in The Tin Drum…. *Barabara Becker-Cantarino*	176
	“Getting Back to the Umbilical Cord”: Feminist and Psychoanalytic Theory and The Tin Drum……………………………………….. *Teresa Ludden*	185
	Teaching the Film Die Blechtrommel
	Can Nazi Childhood Be Innocent? Teaching Volker Schlöndorff’s Die Blechtrommel……………. *Stephen Brockmann*	198
	Keeping Time: Sound and Image in Volker Schlöndorff’s Film Die Blechtrommel……………….. *Margaret Setje-Eilers*	209
	Storytelling and desire in the Film Die Blechtrommel…………………………………….. *Susan C. Anderson*	221
	Notes on Contributors……………………………………..	233
	Survey Participants………………………………………...	237
	Works Cited………………………………………………..	239
	Index……………………………………………………….	255