Are You There Cassandra? It’s Me, Loulou

Abstract

This essay explores Christa Wolf’s argument that literature is a form of “peace research” through creative engagement with the fictional character Loulou from Margaret Atwood’s Loulou; or, The Domestic Life of the Language. The essay seeks to both ask and answer the following questions: what if Loulou read Christa Wolf’s Cassandra? Would Loulou reimagine her circumstances through literary engagement? As Loulou engages with Wolf’s Cassandra, this essay finds that Loulou’s identity and understandings of self and other are changed. In alignment with Wolf’s “peace research” argument, the essay finds that literature has the power to prompt readers to see what is, imagine what if?, and assert why not?