Ilse Langner's Klytämnestra : A Feminist Response to the Rhetoric of War
In: Women in German yearbook: feminist studies in German literature & culture, Band 14, Heft 1, S. 183-199
ISSN: 1940-512X
Ilse Langner's Klytämnestra marks a change in revisions of Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon. While authors have traditionally demonized the figure as a murderer or discounted her as a mother in mourning, feminist authors have reclaimed Clytemnestra in order to clear her name. Langner belongs to this tradition, but at the same time breaks free of it. Instead of justifying Clytemnestra's murder of Agamemnon, Langner focuses on the queen's deeds during her reign in Mycene, where she has created an alternative society that denies the primacy of patriarchy and war. This article examines Langner's feminist revision of Clytemnestra. (CCM)