Magic Realism in Guntur Grass's 'The Tin Drum'

Guntur Grass is the world famous German novelist, poet and playwright. In 1959, he became famous with the publication of his novel The Tin Drum and won several international awards, including the Nobel Prize in Literature. It became the best seller book of Germany. Grass was awarded the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature for The Tin Drum. The Swedish Academy declared that the novel would become “one of the enduring literary works of the 20^th century.” Grass’ fiction was influenced by the 20^th century movements such as Expressionism and Theatre of the Absurd. He used objects and objective correlative to promote his ideas. Grass makes a separation between the man-made ideas of morality and logic and the actual events. There is a certain ambiguity of meaning and lack of straightforward morality. 

            The present research paper focuses the Magic Realism in the novel The Tin Drum.  The narrator of this novel is Oskar who is dwarf and insane. The novel reflects the influence of the German folklore and the element of grotesque. Grass tries to explore political, economic, and social problems of German people since the year 1900 and through the horrible years of World War II. The novel also covers the post-war period of German “Economic Miracle”. The story of the novel is set in the places named as Danzig and Dusseldorf. It records the life and troubles of Oskar and his family during the rise and fall of Nazism. Since its publication, the novel has raised profound and painful issues for contemporary Germans, including the extent to which the German public was involved in Nazi war crimes and their responsibility for those crimes. For these reasons The Tin Drum is widely regarded as Gross’ most important, influential, and thought-provoking work.