15 - Grimms Wörter: Deliberations on Language and Legacy

Summary

In Grimms Wörter: Eine Liebeserklärung (2010), Grass adopts the role of cultural biographer by entering into an imagined dialogue with Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859). Grass situates himself in German history by positing membership in a long-standing community of writers and artists, represented by the Grimms, whose work on the German Dictionary serves as a catalyst for describing a “home” in language. I read Grimms Wörter as a celebration of philological work of many kinds, while arguing that Grass's images of the brothers’ obsessive collection of words is comparable to the amassing of archival information in Ein weites Feld. The activity of collecting words stands for a productive means of anchoring identity in the ephemeral present. The linguistic focus of Grimms Wörter indicates Grass's idealization of the creative (and democratic) potential of words—albeit offset in his autobiographies by the material presence of the world around him in the form of onions and amber, Rama's photographic legacy, the Grimms’ boxes of index cards with words and quotations, and, finally, the simple objects that Grass contemplates in Vonne Endlichkait.

In Grimms Wörter, Grass imagines himself traveling back in time to observe scenes of the Grimm brothers’ everyday life and provides intimate portraits of their relationship, which was both a personal and professional one. In particular, this cultural biography examines lives devoted to philology, an interest shared by Grass and the Grimms. It is likewise an examination of the political pressures the Grimms were subjected to, which Grass uses as a springboard to describe his own interventions in public speeches. He explained in an interview that historical similarities prompted these biographical comparisons: “Das Dasein der Grimms, die wie ich von radikalem Wechsel bestimmte Zeiten erlebten, bietet sich dazu an” (the cultural context of the Grimms, who experienced turbulent changes much as I did, seemed to provide the opportunity). Yet German reviewers proved unreceptive to Grass's celebration of his public role, criticizing Grimms Wörter for what was seen as vanity-driven emphasis on his decades of political engagement. Indeed, this narrative's strength lies in its nuanced depiction of the Grimms’ work habits, historical context, and the intricacies of the German language.