As a result, Cassandra narrates from both inside and outside of her culture. Since she tried to shape what happened to her city in foretelling its destruction, she was not only ignored but also left out of the decision-making process. As she awaits her death, she reflects on her city and civilization and the sequence of events that led up to the war and happenings during the war. She is in front of the Mycenaean palace with her servant and her sons. When the novel switches perspective, Cassandra is a prisoner of war and is awaiting her execution. The opening and closing passages take place in present-day Greece, and the third-person narrator muses that this is the spot upon which the mythical Cassandra stood. German Democratic Republic (GDR) critics, however, gave the novel mixed reviews when it was first published in German.Įxcept for the opening and closing passages, Cassandra is a first-person interior monologue. The novel appealed to readers in East Germany, where reprints quickly sold out, and in West Germany, where the novel remained on the best-seller list for a year. Narrated by Cassandra, the novel is a reflection on her life, on Troy, and on the long war that leads to Troy’s destruction. Cassandra is a retelling of Homer’s prophetess and the last moments before her execution by the Greeks. Shortly thereafter, the draft was reworked and published in 1983 with Jan Van Heurck’s English translation appearing in 1984. Cassandra was the fifth and final lecture of a series Christa Wolf (1929–2011) presented in 1982.
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