An 'eirenic provocation'. 'Novemberland' by Gunter Grass and the 'decline of political culture'

In 'Novemberland' Gunter Grass picks up the thread of the baroque writing t echniques which he has frequently used in his works. Striking emblematic re ferences used as signals. Grass's own specific imagery and not least the ge nre of the sonnet as a form of occasional lyric poetry, used here for the f irst time in his work, provide many links between the cycle of poems and li terary tradition. These are structural factors, most of which have been emp loyed in Grass's earlier works. Over and above these, however, the reader c an discern, behind the references to literary tradition and in covert contr ast to the baroque utopia of reconciliation, the will to view the discursiv e form of the so-called reunification debate not only in its contingent con tent but also as a sign of a declining political culture.