Title: “Eternal Dance of the Scarecrows”: On the Conception of History in Günter Grass’ Hundejahre

Abstract: As the most complex work in Günter Grass’ “Danzig Trilogy,” Hundejahre centers on the human history. The spatialization of time is staged on both a structural and thematic level. On the one hand, through the “strategy of simultaneity,” the temporal narrative is endowed with a spatial structure, where linear, unidirectional time loses its continuity and orientation. History, as a collective representation of the passage of time and imagined future trends, is embodied in the Vistula River. On the other hand, the scarecrows, dogs, and mines, recalled through the Vistula River, portray the eternal recurrence and absurdity of history. Humanity cannot make history; human history makes no progress. Humanity’s “self-domestication” ultimately leads to hell. Hundejahre reflects Grass’ historical perspective during the 1960s, while also questioning and critically reflecting on the concept of progress.

Keywords: Günter Grass, Hundejahre, eternal recurrence, absurdity, historical perspective

Author: Yi Liu, Ph.D. Candidate, School of German Language, Sichuan International Studies University, Chongqing, China.

DOI: 10.19967/j.cnki.flc.2025.02.006