Artistic understanding of history in G. Grasse’s novel “too far afield”

Statement of the problem. The present research is devoted to studying of the G. Grasse’s novel “Too Far Afield”, in which the problem of the historical fate of the nation is coupled with questions about the meaning and functioning of fiction itself in the field of national culture. The purpose of the article is to consider the ways of representing historical material in the novel “Too Far Afield” by Gunther Grass in the context of the author’s historiosophy and the concept of a historiocentric novel. Methodology and methods. The methodology of the study is synthetic. The methods of the study include intertextual, historical-cultural and comparative-historical methods. The research is aimed not only at the analytics of the literary work by G. Grass, but also at the reconstruction of its historical concept. The research methodology is expanding with methods of hermeneutic theory. Research results. It has been established that it is important for G. Grass to show not the official documented historiography, but the subjective interpretation of well-known facts, the truth of which is confirmed by timeless value. Referring to the theme of the resistance of the past, the author focuses not only on the consequences of the unification of Germany in the 19th century, but also on the new historical reality, the era of the unification of Germany in the 20th century, in which the modern generation of Germans should exist. The literature, life and work of the German realist Theodor Fontane helps Grass to understand the historical cataclysm.