In 2002 Günter Grass published
Im Krebsgang. Eine Novelle[
Crabwalk. A Novel]. The title - “walking like a crab” - and the text’s first sentence, “‘Why only now?’ he says, this person not to be confused with me” indicate that Grass’ choice of narrative technique and narrator are integral parts of his story. Grass applies the non-linear spatial progression of the crab to the narrative movement in historical time, “seeming to go backward but actually scuttling sideways, and thereby working my way forward fairly rapidly”. This crabwalk approach to time reveals a surprising coincidence of historical dates: “on 30 January 1945, fifty years to the day after [Wilhelm Gustloff’s] birth, the ship named after him began to sink, signaling the downfall of the Thousand-Year…
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Citation: Mayer, Sigrid. "Im Krebsgang". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 11 October 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=4540, accessed 21 November 2024.]
