"Das Bekenntnis zum Gegenstand durchzieht alle meine Bücher". Gli oggetti della mitologia privata di Günter Grass.

By examining the world of objects of Günter Grass’ artistic, literary, or private horizon, the present analysis focuses on the author’s aptitude to define his relationship with inanimate items or with certain animals. The act of hunting and gathering stands for the exhibition of an atavistic practice which turns out to be a repetition compulsion when in the creative activity the subjects exhibited as trophies are codified as favorites among many others. The relationship with objects implies not only “possession” but also “familiarization” with elements that represent an artistic and affective cosmos; in the case of animals, some of them become the reasoning or judging alter-ego showing the ideological flaws of human behavior. The contribution is divided into a first part, which examines the reasons why Grass takes sides as an artist against abstractionism and chooses to turn to certain favorite objects or subjects to produce poems, novels, drawings and sculptures; and into a second one, which highlights the point of connection between the sacred and profane spheres, sealed by the special relationship of Grass with the figure of Mary and, in the concluding part, the analysis highlights how the author seeks a form of consolation in his favorite objects to the erosion of physical and moral forces.