Christa Wolf, Kassandra [Cassandra]

Ingo Roland Stoehr
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Christa Wolf’s short novel

Kassandra

(1983) is perhaps the most important text of German literary feminism published during the 1980s. The English translation by Jan van Heurck,

Cassandra

(1984), appeared together with Wolf’s poetics lectures at the University of Frankfurt on her short novel,

Voraussetzungen einer Erzählung: Kassandra

[

Conditions of a Narrative: Cassandra

, 1983]. The combination of literary work and theoretical reflection, poetic earnestness and public success, points to the range of interpretations the novel has prompted. The monologue of the Trojan princess and priestess Kassandra in the moments before her death in Mycenae invites the readers to reconsider the dawn of Western civilization and its founding myths in the Homeric epics and related narratives.

According

2422 words

Citation: Stoehr, Ingo Roland. "Kassandra". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 January 2007 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=19523, accessed 28 March 2024.]

19523 Kassandra 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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