This study extends the long-established notion of Grass's 'Danzig Trilogy' to that of the
'Danzig Quintet' - a literary project of epic proportions which explores the evolution of
Germany's relationship to its Nazi past over a period of forty years. The interlocking stories
of Die Blechtrommel (1959) Katz und Maus (1961) Hundejahre (1963) örtlich betäubt (1969) and
Im Krebsgang (2002) are mediated by the memory and language of seven first-person narrators.
Using the dual conceptualisation of memory developed by Freud and Lacan - 'reliving' versus
'recollecting' the past - the author shows how these narrators' accounts assert the reality of
the Holocaust (as well as German wartime suffering) while highlighting the reluctance of
ordinary Germans to admit their involvement in the Nazi regime. This delineation of the complex
relationship of three generations to their history is deepened by the intertextual nature of
the quintet. Using the theory of Peter Brooks Umberto Eco Shoshana Felman and Hayden White
the study explores how Grass's textual strategies encourage the reader to view all five works
as one overarching narrative while simultaneously avoiding any literary or historical closure.
In the process the study places each book in the context of its moment of production and also
considers the implications of Grass's belated admission in August 2006 that he served with
the Waffen-SS during the final months of World War Two.
