"Die Rättin" di Günter Grass fra "Märchenwelle" e storia naturale della catastrofe

This article intends to focus on the novel "Die Raettin" by Günter Grass in order to discuss the romantic suggestions that inspired the imagination of the writer, in the context of his typical criticism of progress. By investigating the role played by German romantic "Maerchen" in the novel, the article aims at demonstrating that Grass’ literary works has drawn lifeblood from fairy tales to corrode their positive pedagogical value from within and to the point of overturning it into a hallucination of the catastrophe towards which the natural history of man irremediably declines from the Enlightenment. In order to demostrate this critical and ironic approach to German history and cultural memory, the article focuses on the the topic of the "Wald" and discusses its multilayered meaning in "Die Raettin".