The representation of patriarchy and power relations in Christa Wolf's Kassandra

Essay from the year 2014 in the subject Literature - Modern Literature grade: Starred First University of Nottingham (School of Cultures Languages and Area Studies) course: Recent Women''s Writing language: English abstract: ''That''s the male version. Now watch the other'' this statement encapsulates the underlying theme of Christa Wolf''s narrative Kassandra in which she radically inverts the Homeric ''male version'' of the Trojan War. Inspired by Ingeborg Bachmann Wolf creates a female voice within a male-dominated society. She re-writes the mythos from the perspective of a female narrator Kassandra a Trojan princess and prophet who upon the fall of the city is waiting for her execution in Mycenae and uses her last hours to deliver her retrospective account of the Greek-Trojan conflict. Thereby Wolf provides critique of the patriarchal order as well as the power relations dictated by patriarchs and so ''scratches away the entire male tradition''