“Perché proprio Napoleone?”. Neue Lebensansichten eines Katers come prima riscrittura femminista nell’opera di Christa Wolf

Abstract

Christa Wolf ’s short story Neue Lebensansichten eines Katers has generally been read as a parody of the technocratic ambitions of the GDR and a satiric science-fiction in which women play no role. The following paper, however, focuses on the female characters of the story to illustrate the literary strategies that Wolf adopts to criticise and subvert the conventional power relations operating in gender dynamics. A close reading of the text will lead to a re-evaluation of the significance of the story within the path of the author’s growing gender awareness, which culminates in her later rewritings Kassandra and Medea.