Katz und Maus

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Katz und Maus
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Questions re. Chapter 7

• 1. What context is created for the talk at the
  school what image of the experience of war is
  created by the Kapitänleutnant, and how far
  would you say that his narrative to the
  schoolchildren shaped by his educational
  experiences?
• 2. What does the singling-out of Buschmann
  demonstrate about the dynamics of group
  behaviour?
• 3. What insight does this chapter give us into
  the way the narrator relates to Mahlke? (Pay
  attention to the descriptions of Mahlke which he
  gives us
• 4. Why does Mahlke steal the medal? And why might
  we consider it a turning-point in the book?

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Questions

• 1. What context is created for the talk at the
  school what image of the experience of war is
  created by the Kapitänleutnant, and how far
  would you say that his narrative to the
  schoolchildren shaped by his educational
  experiences?

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The Conradinium

• aus dem Geist unseres Gymnasiums
  hervorgegangen the humanistisches Gymnasium an
  all-round (classical) education to create
  all-round human beings
• Captain quotes Latin while sinking ships
• während der Blick des Führerbildes sich mit dem
  Blick des ölgemalten Freiherrn von Conradi traf
• Who sees himself as upholding the spirit of the
  school?
• Klohse Ordnung der Anstaltmust be maintained
  forbids non-Germanic behaviour

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• 2. What does the singling-out of Buschmann
  demonstrate about the dynamics of group
  behaviour?

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• 3. What insight does this chapter give us into
  the way the narrator relates to Mahlke? (Pay
  attention to the descriptions of Mahlke which he
  gives us).

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Narrative Perspective

• What are the limitations and possibilities of the
  narrative perspective compared to Tauben im Gras?
• In Tauben im Gras the characters to whose
  thoughts the narrator access to seem to be
  unlimited (even dogs)
• Katz und Maus seine Seele wurde mir nie
  vorgestellt. Nie hörte ich, was er dachte
• Chapter 7 reflection on what people might be
  thinking.
• The narrative at time addressed to Mahlke? What
  effect?

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• 4. Why does Mahlke steal the medal? And why might
  we consider it a turning-point in the book?
• Alles, vom Tauchen bis zu den späteren, mehr
  militärischen Leistungen, hat er für sie getan
  oder aber - schon muß ich mir widersprechen - um
  von seinen Adamsapfel abzulenken. Schließlich
  kann ein drittes Motif genannt werden Das
  Gymnasium. (Chapter 3)
• What was Mahlkes stated aim in life before
  Chapter 7?

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Group identities

• Is Mahlkes behaviour simply to be explained by
  individual psychology could Grass have located
  his Cat and Mouse fable in any other historical
  time and place (J. Reddick)
• Is it a story about Germany under National
  Socialism?

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Outsiders as theme in 20c German narrative prose

• When novels are concerned with group identities,
  they frequently explore how the demands of group
  identity restrict individual possibility. (J.
  Culler)
• Many of the prose works on this course
  investigate marginal figures and how society
  marginalizes them
• Or were they born to it?
• Bigger question is the self something given or
  something made through what happens to it?

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Literature and Identity

• Literary works offer a range of implicit models
  of how identity is formed. (J. Culler)
• Tonio Kröger?
• Josef K.?
• To what extent is a subject (self / literary
  character) an agent who makes choices, rather
  than having choices imposed upon them?
• A subject is also determined, subjected to
  various regimes (class, sexual, linguistic)
  which structure the way they think about the
  world (cf. Heinz and Ezra in Tauben im Gras)

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Is anyone responsible for what happens to Mahlke?

• um die ewige Katze von der ewigen Maus
  abzulenken (Ch 2)
• Whose eternal pattern?
• Grass or Pilenz? Who is responsible for the
  structuring of the book? Wer schreibt mir einen
  guten Schluss?
• Is it in Pilenzs interests to own up to any
  responsibility?
• Does an eternal myth not absolve any
  participants from responsibility. Why is he so
  unwilling to name things by their name?

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To be continued next week