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

The main aim of this essay is to go through Christa Wolf’s literary itinerary. I assume here a perspective that I suggest to call mythological destitution. From this standpoint, I analyze Wolf’s four fundamental works. The first – Divided Heaven – is the one in which the author tests the concept of Vergangenheitsbewältigung, a re-elaboration of the past that allows its overcoming. The second – Patterns of Childhood – is the one in which Wolf develops the analytical figure of what she calls phantastische Genauigkeit, a fictional exactness as the only possibility of accessing a collective memory. Finally, Cassandra and Medea, where the authentic historical reconstruction is identified with the deconstruction of the male narrative of 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.