Blinded by the Enlightenment: Günter Grass in Calcutta

Günter Grass's 1988 Zunge zeigen has been criticised as an example of Eurocentricism, an especially harsh charge against this author known for his critique of globalisation. The claim that Grass writes about India as a colonising Westerner overlooks the ways in which he undermines the sovereignty of the Western subject through his polyphonic, self‐reflexive account. The result is a sincere attempt to destabilise the oppressive subject he has been accused of promoting. This attempt notwithstanding, Grass's critique does falter for two reasons that critics of Zunge zeigen have not addressed. The first concerns his use of Theodor Fontane both as a bridge to the history of colonialism and as a model for engaged literature. Fontane proves tenuous on both counts, and diverts Grass's attention both from India's colonial history and literary present. Second, Grass's prescription for overcoming the misery he documents in India and Bangladesh – the Enlightenment – ultimately reinscribes a discourse of domination that favours Europe. By choosing Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction, to represent India, Grass reinforces the notion that rationality is a European invention that is alien to the mystical, chaotic East. Ultimately, Grass fails to account for the Enlightenment's own historical complicity in colonialism.