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Article: Ein Gott der Frechheit.
- Article from:
- World Literature Today
- Article date:
- January 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 University of Oklahoma. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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As in Christoph Ransmayr's Die letzte Welt and Barbara Frischmuth's Uber die Verhaltnisse, antiquity and modernity are also intermingled in Sten Nadolny's new novel Ein Gott der Frechheit. In Ransmayr's tracking of the exiled Ovid, past and present are united in a peculiar metamorphosis, and in Frischmuth the myth of Demeter shows through as if one were reading a palimpsest. Nadolny goes a step further: in his work the ancient gods experience a rebirth. They appear to be immortal, except now they no longer live on Olympus but rather among the people. As is true for humans, much has changed for the gods, who also are subject to historical alterations. Zeus is disempowered ...