La destitución del mito. Christa Wolf y la reescritura de la memoria histórica

Abstract

The main aim of this essay is to go through Christa Wolf's literary itinerary through a perspective that I define as mythological destitution. From this standpoint, I analyze Wolf's four fundamental works. In the first —Divided Heaven— the author tests the concept of Vergangenheitsbewaltigung, a re-elaboration of the past that allows us to overcome it. In the second —Patterns of Childhood— Wolf develops the analytical figure of what she calls phantastische Genauigkeit, a fictional exactness as the only possibility of accessing a collective historical memory. Finally, in Cassandra and Medea authentic historical reconstruction is identified with the deconstruction of male discourse about women. Europe stands at the core of all of these works: Cold War Europe, Nazi Europe, Europe in the original moment of its ideological foundation.