European Union & Disunion

History 102H

Study Guide
Christa Wolf, Medea

They've made what they need out of each of us. Out of you, the Hero, and out of me, the Wicked Witch. They've driven us apart like that.

But what does "known" mean? We're capable of letting ourselves be talked into believing a great many things, aren't we?

No lie is too obvious for the people to believe if it accommodates their secret wish to believe it.

You consider yourselves superior to everyone and everything, and that distorts your vision; you don't see what really is, nor do you see yourselves as you really are.

Possible essay questions. Choose the one you can write on the best. Of, if none of these suit you, formulate your own.

1. Why was Medea exiled?
2. To what extent were the Colchians kept separate from the Corinthians? To what extent were the Colchians themselves responsible for that separation?
3. How did the Corinthians view the Colchians?
4. How did the Colchians view the Corinthians?
5. Why did Medea flee Colchis?
6. Why did the Corinthians trump up accusations against her?
7. Christa Wolf's characters often find meaningful lives away from the centers of power. Medea was a princess of Colchis and a woman of dignity in Corinth. Explain what she found among the foreigners on the outskirts of the city.
8. Discuss human sacrifice in this book: Iphinoe. Aspyrtus. The dithyramb on p. 156. Medea's own children. (At the end you wish she had murdered them herself).
9. Guilt is a principal theme among the major characters. Only Medea seems free from it. Choose one character and discuss the source of that guilt and how he or she dealt with it.
10. Secrets, especially dirty and dark ones, are a principal theme. Discuss this.
11. Innocence, the same.

Some tidbits, not otherwise obvious from the text:

1. That gruesome scene on p. 157: here is the reference to Artemis.
2. Contrasted with the life-giving scene of Demeter on p. 159. Think back to the Magna Mater.