Speak Out! - Speeches, Open Letters, Commentaries

Gunter Grass extends his political commitment beyond his literary work. Using his fame in what he considers the best interests of his nation, he speaks out on all current issues, and fights, in a country without deeply rooted democratic traditions, for the processes of parliamentary democracy. He sees German democracy threatened by postwar developments in a divided Germany and by the rise of extremists on the right and the left.
Grass entered the political arena in 1965, when he delivered fifty-two election speeches throughout Germany in praise of democracy, the Social Democratic Party, and Willy Brandt. In this stirring collection, which includes two election speeches, speeches on student violence and on the Czechoslovakian crisis, open letters to political figures, and political commentaries, Grass the writer appears as Grass the citizen, motivated both by deep concern and by outrage.

About the author

GÜNTER GRASS (1927–2015), Germany's most celebrated contemporary writer, attained worldwide renown with the publication of his novel The Tin Drum in 1959. A man of remarkable versatility, Grass was a poet, playwright, social critic, graphic artist, and novelist. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1999.
 

Summary

Political opinons of Germany's foremost novelist, poet, and dramatist. Translated by Ralph Manheim. Introduction by Michael Harrington. A Helen and Kurt Wolff Book.

Product details

• Authors: Gunter Grass, Günter Grass
• Assisted by: Ralph Manheim (Translation)
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Company
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 22.10.1969
• EAN: 9780156847162
• ISBN: 978-0-15-684716-2
• No. of pages: 142
• Weight: 4531 g
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Germany, Geopolitics, Political structures: democracy, Politics and government, Anthologies: general, Political science and theory, Diaries, letters and journals, Political ideologies and movements, Speeches, HISTORY: WORLD, POLITICAL SCIENCE: World / General, LITERARY COLLECTIONS: Essays, POLITICAL SCIENCE: Political Ideologies / Radicalism, POLITICAL SCIENCE: Political Ideologies / Democracy, POLITICAL SCIENCE: Political Ideologies / Libertarianism, POLITICAL SCIENCE: Geopolitics, LITERARY COLLECTIONS: European / German, POLITICAL SCIENCE: History & Theory