The literature of the German Democratic Republic is not always a serious realm where problems of German fascism, East-West relations, and Marxist class struggle are treated in the sober manner of socialist realism. Currently, the character of the fool appears in various guises adding humor and depth to the literary analysis of these problems. Hermann Kant's Der Aufenthalt examines problems through the eyes of a picaresque fool. Humor is produced by various means. In Irmtraud Morgner's Amanda, the satiric Eulenspiegel uses similar techniques to criticize and to encourage change through laughter. Volker Braun's Hinze-Kunze-Roman explores the relationship of leader and led through the humor of a fool-like modern comedy team.

Ingeborg Bachmann in Malina and Brigitte Schwaiger in Lange Abwesenheit describe the absence of a good father-daughter-relationship. In the second half of the twentieth century authors became interested in what their fathers left behind both privately and politically. Malina and Lange Abwesenheit are a glance backward by the daughters at their lives with their fathers. The daughters search for positive aspects of those relationships and strive to understand both the strengths and the weaknesses of their fathers in order to achieve self-identification. Bachmann and Schwaiger avoid the closed novel form, writing non-chronologically by breaking up their works with dreams, diaries, letters and conversation.

The views of Quintilian, Benjamin and Blumenberg on allegory and metaphor, together with a critical appraisal of Vico's and Frye's theories on myth provide the theoretical framework for the investigations undertaken in this thesis. An analysis of the depiction of city life in Rilke's early works helps establish the function of the city-allegory in the Tenth Duino Elegy. This function is further developed, in detail, in the central third chapter of the thesis, which offers a text-immanent examination of the early stages of the elegy. The mythology manifested in the second half of the poem serves to illustrate the crucial significance of the contrast between city and landscape in Rilke's poetology. Finally, the paradigm of Meister Eckhart's "unio mystica" is used in an attempt to present a new interpretation of the final eight lines of the elegy.

The first and third versions of Wieland's Die Geschichte des Agathon differ from each other in various ways. One observes differences in style, wording, chapter grouping, and other "superficial" changes. There are also major differences in content. Chief among these are the "Danae Geschichte" and the episode at Tarent, which are depicted in detail only in the third version. The respective endings of the two works are remarkably different, and one observes a development in Agathon's character more completely in the third version. Agathon's character development is central to the question whether or not Agathon is a "Bildungsroman".

The translation of Von sente Brandan is based on a text from Carl Schroder's book: Sankt Brandan. Ein lateinischer and drei deutsche Texte, published by Eduard Besold in Erlangen in 1871. Of these four texts, Von sente Brandan is a MHG version which is a transcription of a 14th century manuscript. It is loosely based on the Latin Navigatio sancti Brendani and shows influence of 12th century "Spielmannsdichtung". It is written in rhymed couplets, and consists of 1935 lines. In this version Saint Brendan burns a book when he is angered by what he thinks are fictitious accounts of miracles and wonders. As a punishment, God orders him to sail the seas for nine years until he believes what he has read. After a successful voyage he returns to Ireland, where he dies. This translation strives to provide an accurate and enjoyable translation in unrhymed verse.

Gunter Grass' novel, "The Tin Drum", truly belongs to these literary works, which receive extensive attention from literary critics all over the world. Despite this critical attention, I feel that there is some misunderstanding concerning the kashubians elements. Until now, they were not viewed at the same level as the German or Polish aspects. Moreover, they were either disregarded as unimportant or viewed as a variation of the Polish perspective. Therefore, it is my intention in this thesis to present my own interpretation of the kashubian aspects in "The Tin Drum". Through the interpretation of the kashubian elements apart from Polish or German, I will show that the presence of kashubian elements in this novel is the key to a different and deeper understanding of Grass' message to his readers. To Grass, the word "kashubian" means not only the name of a minority group in Poland, but also symbolizes universal values, such as honesty, simplicity or living according to nature, etc. The novel conveys a more universal meaning and it should not only be viewed as a book mainly concerning reconciliation with the Nazi past.

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