The novel "Schlump" by Hans Herbert Grimm in the context of literary tradition

https://doi.org/10.26907/2658-3321.2021.4.4.512-523

Abstract

The anti-war novel by German writer Hans Herbert Grimm “Schlump” was published twice: in 1928, when it went unnoticed against the background of Erich Maria Remarque’s novel “All Quiet on the Western Front”, and many years later, in 2014, on the anniversary of the outbreak of the First World War. Grimm's book, in which the author reworked his front-line experience, is a kind of synthesis of documentary and artistic, realistic and fabulous. Thus, it stands out among other anti-war novels. The researcher of Grimm's work, the German literary critic Volker Weidermann, who discovered the novel “Schlump” for the modern reader, called this book “a documentary fairy tale about the war”. The purpose of this article is to identify the connection of the novel with the literary tradition. The study of this problem, as it seems to us, will give the key to understanding the specifics of this little-studied work. The originality of Grimm's book is connected, first of all, with the image of the main character, a simple-minded guy named Schlump, a kind of “happy Hans” who goes through the horrors of war without losing his cheerfulness. This refers, on the one hand, to the fairy tale of the brothers Grimm "Hans in Luck”, on the other - to the famous Baroque novel by Hans Jacob Grimmelshausen “Intricate Simplicissimus”. In addition, parallels are traced with Yaroslav Hasek's satirical novel “The Adventures of the Brave Soldier Schweik”. In the course of the study, we come to the conclusion that, when creating his work, Grimm relied on the traditions of a picaresque, satirical novel and a German fairy tale. But, first of all, the book “Schlump” should be considered in the context oft the tradition of a German anti-war novel. In particular, his comparison with Remarque’s novel “All Quiet on the Western Front” turns out to be productive.