The communicative event in the works of Günter Grass : stages of speech, 1959-2015 / Nicole A. Thesz.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 225-280) and index.

Introduction -- Part I. Speech and survival : precarious identities in the Danzig Trilogy. Die Blechtrommel : the language of judgment -- Katz und Maus : empty words and dangerous rhetoric -- Hundejahre : between revelation and obfuscation -- Part II. Educating the public : democracy and dialogue in the mid-career novels. Örtlich betäubt : student protest and pedagogical dialogue -- Aus dem Tagebuch einer Schnecke : family conversations and political speech -- Der Butt : the struggle for communicative dominance -- Das Treffen in Telgte : debates in a literary forum -- Die Rättin : existence and speech after apocalypse -- Part III. Confronting memory : cross-cultural encounters in post-wall fiction. Unkenrufe : east-west exchanges and the remembrance business -- Ein weites Feld : rhetorical performance in the new Berlin -- Mein Jahrhundert : an exercise in oral history -- Im Krebsgang : facing a discourse of hatred -- Part IV. The mediated self : communicative approaches in autobiography. Beim Häuten der Zwiebel : dialogues with memory -- Die Box : conversations around the family album -- Grimms Wörter : deliberations on language and legacy -- Epilogue : taking leave in Vonne Endlichkait.