Medea in the past and in the present: (Re)constructing the identity of a woman and a foreigner in the novel Medea by Christa Wolf

Abstract

One of the most shocking, the most difficult to understand and at the same time the most inspiring tragedy from the Greek antiquity is Euripeides' Medea. This drama has a rich and a long history of adaptations that have always represented an interface between the ancient text on the one hand, and the author's reading on the other, which always depended on cultural and political context of the period that influenced the perspective of the author. Most of these adaptations belong to theatrical production. However my interest in this paper is not oriented towards theatre, but towards literature, a novel Medea: A Modern Retelling by Christa Wolf. First part of the paper deals with the reconstruction of the ancient context and meaning of this drama in the antiquity from the perspective of contemporary study of classics, while the second part is devoted to the questions of Wolf's adaptation: the ways in which Christa Wolf rewrites Medea, tracing of Wolf's reasons to approach the text in such a way, the main relation of Wolf's version to former version(s), and intellectual and social climate in which Wolf's Medea was created. The focus of the research will be on the reading of the construction of the Other, of gender and gender roles, also through the analysis of their transgression - in the Greek antiquity when Euripides drama was staged, as well in the Germen (European) context of the end of the twentieth century in which Medea was rewritten by Christa Wolf.