Cassandra in a Time of War: A Reading of Marcial Gala’s Llámenme Casandra and Igiaba Scego’s Cassandra a Mogadiscio

Abstract

This article focuses on Marcial Gala’s 2019 novel Llámenme Casandra and Igiaba Scego’s 2023 novel Cassandra a Mogadiscio demonstrating how both texts feature the mythological prophetess Cassandra in order to thematize conflict and social stigma in relation to colonial/postcolonial contexts and intersectional identities. More in general, my argument contributes to mapping the growing relevance of Cassandra in world literature and the arts as a key character for problematizing issues of social marginalization.

My argument is divided into three sections. Section one provides an overview of the contemporary reception of Cassandra’s myth aimed at showing that the two traits associated with this character (prophetic voice related to wars and social marginality) are the core elements driving such reception. Sections two and three focus on Scego’s and Gala’s novels. Gala’s novel features a male soldier who identifies himself as a reincarnation of Cassandra fighting during the Cuban Intervention in Angola (1970s), while in Cassandra a Mogadiscio the author herself identifies as Cassandra in narrating her family’s experiences during the Somali Civil War (1990s) and the migration to Italy.

By examining these texts through the methodological lenses provided by Classical Reception Studies, Queer Studies and Crenshaw’s theory of intersectionality, I demonstrate how the two novels work as key sites for the exploration of the processes behind the construction of social identities.