Structural levels and reconstruction of the plot in the Blechtrommel by Volker Schlöndorff
Abstract
The paper aims to analyse the relationship between Günter Grass’s Blechtrommel, the work whose appearance in 1959 marked the end of a long period of crisis in the novel form in Germany, and Volker Schlöndorff’s film version of 1979, recognised as one of the most original examples of narrative adaptation from one medium to another. Among the issues considered are the structural transformations of the plot, which are very profound, because the complexity of Grass’s work does not lend itself easily to being transferred without change out of the context of writing, and also because of the different historical and cultural contexts in which the two authors operate. I come to the conclusion that in Grass’s novel the narrative elements intended to stimulate the reader’s identification with the protagonist are systematically balanced by other elements aimed at attracting the reader’s attention to the compatibility of the protagonist himself with certain aspects of totalitarian society. In Schlöndorff’s film, on the other hand, an aesthetic of empathy prevails, with the objective of evoking an ideal of social change centred on a symbolic image of childhood.
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