Spanische und deutsche Modell-Leser. Griechenland als Mythos und griechische Mythologie. Diskursstrategien in Mujercísimas von Terenci Moix (1995) und Ein Gott der Frechheit von Sten Nadolny (1994)

Abstract

Umberto Eco's concept of the “model-reader” serves as a theoretical starting point to analyze the narrative strategies of two texts with Greece as a tertium comparationis: Ein Gott der Frechheit (1994) by the German novelist Sten Nadolny and Mujercísimas (1995) by the Catalan author Terenci Moix. Both of them regard Greece as a myth as well as a country. Nadolny functionalizes Greek mythology to reveal the perversity of “perfect” worlds, such as the former GDR and the contemporary high-tech-environment, Moix satirizes the Spanish new-richs of the 1990s. Playing with national clichés and stereotypes, these texts create a super-national “model-reader,” whose reception moves from national images to global issues.