Em uma conversa com Hans Kaufmann, publicada sob o título de Subjektive Authentizität (1973), Christa Wolf afirma a necessidade de se encontrar um tipo de escrita que alcance um alto grau de realismo na apresentação de temas relevantes, mas polêmicos para o indivíduo e seu grupo. Na ocasião da entrevista a autora já trabalhava em Kindheitsmuster, publicado pouco depois (1976). Este trabalho parte da hipótese de que as novas técnicas narrativas exigidas pela autora, a qual se posiciona na ocasião contra a política cultural da RDA e o realismo socialista, seriam visíveis não apenas no romance mencionado, mas em toda sua trajetória a partir de então, e mais decididamente retomadas em Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr.Freud (2010), o qual se aproxima muito do livro da década de setenta tanto por sua estrutura e recursos narrativos adotados, quanto por tratar-se novamente da narração de experiências autobiográficas cruciais em sua trajetória. Por meio da comparação dos livros citados procura-se analisar alguns dos recursos estilísticos e estratégias literárias utilizados para configurar a experiência em dois momentos temporais bastante distintos, bem como o modo pelo qual acontecimentos pessoais e da história contemporânea são apresentados em estreita ligação. Por meio de diversas técnicas literárias e de uma determinada posição diante de si e do público, a autora cultiva uma escrita ao mesmo tempo objetiva e subjetiva, a qual traria o indivíduo para o centro do texto e produziria um tipo especial de realismo e de autenticidade por ela almejados, devendo-se, contudo, atentar para as especificidades de cada contexto. Do jogo entre subjetividade e objetividade presente nos dois textos deriva-se ainda um outro, entre a factualidade e ficcionalidade, de modo que os textos da autora se aproximam de uma tendência surgida nos anos setenta: a da autoficção. Trata-se de um conceito bastante versátil e polêmico da teoria literária, o qual deve ser primeiramente definido, para assim ver como se configura no caso específico de Wolf, cujos textos são declarados pela autora como ficcionais, mas recebidos por público e crítica como autobiográficos. O caráter ficcional de seus textos estaria antes no emprego de técnicas metaficcionais, de encenação de processos de escrita e de rememoração na obra, que na ficcionalidade dos episódios. / During conversation with Haus Kaufmann published under the title Subjektive Authentizität (1973), Christa Wolf affirms the necessity of establishing a mode of writing with the purpose of reaching a high degree of Realism and combining social polemic with thematic literary presentation. At that moment, Wolfs Kindheitsmuster was already in progress; it would be published three years later, in 1976. This dissertation has as its claim that Wolfs new narrative techniques, vindicated at the same time of the authors rupture with Socialist Realism and GDR cultural politics, are visible not only in Kindheitsmuster, but also through her entire career thereafter. In order to demonstrate that, we propose the evaluation of Kindheitsmuster in comparison with Wolfs 2010 novel Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud. In this novel, Wolf recovers some of the narrative techniques first developed in the 1970s, and, following the example of Kindheitsmuster, plunges herself into important autobiographic material. By the way of this comparison, our aim is to analyze some of Wolfs stylistic devices and strategies put in use so as to present close interconnection between historical moment and personal experience in two quite different moments. Through those devices and strategies, combined with Wolfs own public position, the author blurs the traditional boundaries between fictionality and factuality, subjectivity and objectivity, by bringing into attention her concept of subjective authenticity and a new idea of Realism as well. Behind Wolfs achievement, there is a quite specific understanding of autofictionality, based upon metafictional techniques and the mingling of literary representation and recollection processes, and which is our task to interpret.

Ma thèse s'intitule “Le mythe de Médée. De Euripide à Pier Paolo Pasolini et Christa Wolf”. Il s'agit d'une analyse comparatiste, dans le but de démontrer les liens existants entre l'écriture – ou bien la réécriture – et les événements culturels et politiques du pays des deux auteurs. Dans le cas spécifique, la comparaison est axée sur le film de Pasolini (1969) et le roman de Christa Wolf (1996), deux textes que j'ai considéré comme particulièrement significatifs en raison de la biographie des deux auteurs et du moment historique dans lequel ces ouvrages furent élaborée. En effet, ma thèse ne se veut pas comme un travail exclusivement littéraire, avec une analyse des éléments esthétiques et stylistiques des textes, mais j'ai cherché d'élaborer un discours qui touche aussi les aspects historiques et les processus liés à la réélaboration du mythe de Médée. J'ai structuré ma thèse dans deux chapitres parallèles, pour mieux permettre la comparaison entre les deux ouvrages. Après une partie dédiée aux points de rupture biographique (par. 1), je me suis concentrée sur l'analyse de la réécriture du mythe. J'ai prêté une attention particulière aux conditions sociopolitiques de l'Allemagne et de l'Italie à la sortie du film et du roman, pour passer enfin à l'analyse des sources littéraires, notamment celles du domaine anthropologique - Pasolini - et féministes – Wolf – en démontrant la stratification complexe qui est à la base d'une réélaboration du mythe. ( par. 2) En deuxième lieu, une longue partie de la thèse est dédiée à l'analyse détaillée du film de Pasolini et du roman de Christa Wolf, en concentrant l'attention sur les aspects originels apportés par les deux auteurs ainsi qu'à l'élaboration d'une poétique liée aux changements culturels et politiques de leurs temps (par. 3). Enfin, j'ai consacrée une partie à la réception, en montrant jusqu'à quels point les troubles de la société finissent pour altérer une lecture objective de l'œuvre (par. 4). Le dernier chapitre porte enfin sur les œuvres qui suivirent la publication de Médée, en montrant comment la réélaboration de ce mythe a influencé le travail dans les années suivants. (par. 5) La partie sur la "Medea" de Pier Paolo Pasolini a été rédigée en français, celle sur "Medea.Stimmen" en italien. / My thesis is titled “The Myth of Medea. From Euripide to Pier Paolo Pasolini and Christa Wolf”. The work is a comparative analysis with the purpose of establishing links between the writings - better called rewritings - and political as much as cultural events in the countries of the two modern authors. My thesis focuses on the comparison between the movie by Pasolini (1969) and the novel by Christa Wolf (1996): I consider the two texts very meaningful because of their close connection with both biography of the authors and the historical moment in which the works have been developed.In fact, the work in my thesis does not only concern a literary analysis from an aesthetic and stilistic point of view, but I tried, moreover, to deepen those historical and political events that generated the re-elaboration of Euripide's myth of Medea.I wanted to structure my research in two parallel parts, in order to allow a better comparison between the two works. After a section dedicated to the biographies of the authors (Chapter 1), I focused my study on the actual rewriting of the myth. A particular care was given to the socio-political context in Germany and Italy in the times of release of the novel and the movie, and I afterwards payed a particular attention on the analysis of literary sources: above all in the anthropological field as concerning Pasolini, and feminist one for Christa Wolf, to demonstrate the complex stratification which is the foundation of a re-elaboration of myth (Ch. 2). Secondly, a substantial section of my thesis is dedicated to a detailed analysis of the movie by Pasolini and the novel by Christa Wolf, with an attention on the innovative aspects brought by the two authors, as well as to a poetic linked to political and cultural changes (Ch. 3). I dedicated a special part to the reception of the two works, showing how deep social and political troubles of then were a distort point of view on the works (Ch. 4). The last chapter, finally, analyze the works after the releas of Medea, proving how those re-elaborations of myth influenced the works in the following years (Ch. 5). The part concerning “Medea” by Pier Paolo Pasolin was written in French, while the part on Christa Wolf's “Medea. Stimmen” is in Italian.

Les penseurs et écrivains ont depuis l’Antiquité constitué une partie importante des personnes touchées par l’exil politique, situation qui en retour a influencé leurs œuvres et marqué la littérature. Cette tradition littéraire s’est vue, dans la seconde moitié du XXe siècle, profondément bouleversée par l’émergence des totalitarismes et l’affrontement avec les démocraties que ces régimes, sous leurs différentes formes, ont suscité. Ce contexte politique inédit a provoqué, outre un accroissement du nombre des écrivains concernés, d’importantes transformations structurelles, obligeant notamment les exilés à remettre en cause leur propre image, leurs thèmes et stratégies de communication, ainsi qu’à revoir la portée de leurs écrits. L’étude comparée des œuvres de Jorge Semprún, Christa Wolf, Julio Cortázar et Alicia Dujovne Ortiz, permet de mettre en lumière des changements esthétiques communs à ces écrivains engagés, ayant fui respectivement l’Espagne, l’Allemagne et l’Argentine, et de constater la naissance, à cette époque, d’une écriture originale. / Since Ancient Times, thinkers and writers have in large numbers been struck by political exile. In return, this situation has influenced their work and literature as a whole. In the second half of the 20th Century, this literary tradition has been deeply transformed by the surge of totalitarian regimes, and the struggle with democracies which these regimes have provoked. This new political context has induced a large increase of writers in exile, but also important structural transformations, forcing the exiles to modify their own images, the themes of their work and their communication strategies, and also the nature of their writings. The comparative study of the works of Jorge Semprún, Christa Wolf, Julio Cortázar and Alicia Dujovne Ortiz allows us to discover common aesthetic changes between these politically committed writers, who have flown respectively from Spain, Germany, and Argentina, and to note the birth of a new form of writing.

Fragen der Mythen- und Legendenbildung zugewandt, ist der anschließende germanistische Beitrag, „Christa Wolfs Medea und Girards Opfer- und Sündenbocktheorie im Dialog über gewalttätige Frauen, geopferte Knaben und den Mythos von der bösen Zauberin“, von Franziska Kühn (M. Ed.). In kritischer Bezugnahme auf die breite Forschung zu Wolfs (zunächst) umstrittenem Roman aus dem Jahr 1996, stellt der Aufsatz einmal mehr die Frage nach der Funktion von René Girards Opfer- und Sündenbocktheorie für die ästhetische Konstruktion und das Sinnpotential von Wolfs Mythenreprise. Diese reduziert sich, so die Argumentation, nicht auf eine bloße Adaption, sondern korrigiert und erweitert auf dialogische Weise Girards ‚gender-neutrale‘ Theorie. Mit der präzisen, detaillierten Bestandsaufnahe von romanspezifischen Aufnahmen, Modifikationen und Zurückweisungen Girard‘scher Theoreme wird so, über die Ausgangsfrage hinaus, ein differenziertes Bild der ‚Mytho-Login‘ Wolf sichtbar, die – auch das im Sinne einer gendersensiblen memoria – mit Girard alt-feministische Täter-Opfer-Stereotype entzaubert, die umgekehrt in Girards ‚Mytho-Logie‘ den vergessenen Medea-Text einschreibt, sie um andere Mythos-Theorien erweitert (Barthes) und Girards Unterscheidung zwischen legitimer, ritueller Gewalt und ‚Mord‘ subvertiert.

This thesis explores the significance of the journey to Poland in contemporary German literature by women. The texts are Bronjas Erbe (2001) by Beate Rygiert, Himmelskörper (2003) by Tanja Dückers, Pawels Briefe (1999) by Monika Maron, Die Töchter (1976) by Jeannette Lander, and Kindheitsmuster (1976) by Christa Wolf. I argue that Poland, as the site of the Holocaust and of the expulsions, serves as a site of memory in these texts, and that the journey to Poland allows the Jewish and non-Jewish protagonists to come to terms with the past. During their journey, most of the protagonists find what they were looking for. Further, through direct contact with Poles and Polish culture, most of the protagonists are able to overcome prejudice and stereotypical thinking. Since both the authors and their protagonists belong to different generations, i.e., those who experienced WWII directly and their children and grandchildren, the ways in which family history is passed on from one generation to the next and how it is re-collected within the German Polish context is the major concern of these texts. The immediate contact with the Polish sites triggers a process of remembering in the first-generation protagonists who are then able to pass it on to their children to fill the gaps in the family’s collective memory. The members of the younger generations become actively involved in helping to restore this memory. While conflicts between the generations escalate in Poland, the process of working through these conflicts on Polish ground helps the family members to better understand each other. I read the texts through anthropologist Victor Turner’s three-phase model of separation, liminality, and reaggregation. Poland in the five texts can thus be interpreted as a liminal space or, to use Mary Louise Pratt’s term, a contact zone. Since the texts focus on the experience of the female protagonist and traveler, the role of women as keepers of family memory is also stressed. Because of their intense probing of ethnic stereotypes and the legacy of the past, the five texts can be seen as contributing significantly to fostering a better understanding between Germans and Poles and non-Jewish and Jewish Poles. / Thesis (Ph.D, German) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-21 19:51:55.603

This thesis examines narrative techniques and the theme of unrootedness and exile in Christa Wolf’s novel Stadt der Engel oder The Overcoat of Dr. Freud. By using Genette’s terminology on narratology and close-reading of the novel the thesis shows that a sense of distance and unrootedness is created within the novel and that the theme of unrootedness and exile creates a frame for the narration, which lacks of a plot in a traditional meaning and which’s main character’s subject is fragmented, which is typical for a poststructuralist novel.

Keywords Christa Wolf, myth, mythology, myth revision, Cassandra, Medea, social functions of literature Abstract The subject of this thesis is the incorporation of ancient mythology in the story Cassandra and in the novel Medea: A Modern Retelling by Christa Wolf with the backdrop of the author's own understanding of the function of literature. The first part of the work contains a theoretical introduction to the topic of myths and mythology and presents the most important theories about myths and their incorporation in literature. The subsequent part of the work focuses on the understanding of a myth and its function as used by Christa Wolf. The core of this work is an analysis of the literary incorporation of mythological substance in the writings specified above and a comparison with the incorporation of such substance in the works of ancient authors Aeschylus and Euripides, with the aim of showing through what means and what intentions the author has updated and revised the myth. This part of the work also includes an analysis of the poetological concept of Christa Wolf and the related social functions of literature and the author's role.

Cette analyse littéraire examine le mythe de Médée et ses redites par Euripide et Christa Wolf. Depuis les années 1950, de nombreuses autrices occidentales révisionnistes se sont replongées dans la mythologie pour trouver l’inspiration artistique afin de combler le manque de représentation du genre dans l'héritage culturel de l’Occident. L'un des objectifs de ces écrivaines est de raconter l'histoire du point de vue de l'Autre réduit au silence, une façon de déconstruire l'apriorité du genre et les stéréotypes imposés par ce qu'Adorno appelle la raison formelle. Explorer les mythes, c'est les adapter à notre époque et détecter leur insistance et leur pertinence intemporelle. Cet exercice permet aux femmes d'exprimer leur version de l'histoire afin de déstabiliser la rhétorique et les archétypes patriarcaux. Pour ébranler et déconstruire les stéréotypes de la féminité fabriqués par la raison formelle occidentale, il est essentiel de se tourner vers la figure mythique de Médée en tant que femme. En effet, comment la comparaison entre la Médée de Christa Wolf et celle d'Euripide peut-elle produire une esthétique permettant d'émanciper la princesse de Colchide et les femmes de la domination de la raison masculine occidentale ? Pour répondre à cette question, la théorie dialectique d'Adorno et l'esthétique de Christa Wolf sont prises comme axe analytique entre les versions d'Euripide et de Wolf du mythe de Médée. Comme le montre cette étude comparative, la Médée d'Euripide, la mère meurtrière dépourvue de sophrosyne, reste un archétype vivant de la féminité à la fin des années 90 en Allemagne. De même, Euripide et Wolf brossent un portrait cohérent des femmes en tant que servantes de la nature, mais contrairement à son homologue grecque, Christa Wolf insiste sur le caractère naturel du corps en tant qu'esthétique épistémologique qui permet au non-identique et aux différences de surgir. Medea : A Modern Retelling juxtaposé à la tragédie d'Euripide crée un dialogue qui explore l'écriture corporelle et son utilité pour évaluer l'agentivité de chacun dans le monde des significations. / This literary analysis examines the Medea myth and its retellings by Euripides and Christa Wolf. Since the 1950s, many Western revisionist mythmaking authors have dived back into mythology to find artistic inspiration to fill the gender gap within the Western world’s overly masculinized cultural heritage. One of the purposes of these authors is to tell the story from the silenced Other’s vantage point of view, a way to deconstruct gender apriority and stereotypes imposed by what Adorno calls formal reason. To explore myths is to recast them into modern days and detect their timeless insistence and relevance. This exercise allows women to voice their side of the story to destabilize the patriarchal rhetoric and archetypes. To shake and deconstruct stereotypes of womanhood made by Western formal reason, it is essential to turn toward Medea’s mythical figure as a woman. Indeed, how can the comparison between Christa Wolf’s and Euripides’ Medea produce an aesthetics that emancipates the princess of Colchis and women from Western males’ domination? To answer this interrogation, this literary research takes Adorno’s dialectical theory and Wolf’s aesthetics as the analytical axis of comparison between Euripides’ and Wolf’s versions of the Medea myth. As this comparison concludes, Euripides’ Medea, the murderous mother devoid of sophrosyne, remains an archetype of womanhood in the late 90s’ imagnation. Also, Euripides and Wolf draw a consistent image of women as nature’s minions. However, unlike the Greek tragedian, Christa Wolf insists on the naturalness of the body as an epistemological aesthetics that allows the non-identical to shine forth. Medea: A Modern Retelling juxtaposed with Euripides’ tragedy creates a dialogue that explores corporeal writing and its usefulness in assessing one’s agency into the world of meanings.

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