Meticulous analysis of works by Rolf Hochhuth (»Die Berliner Antigone«), Günter Kunert (»Ikarus 64«), Volker Braun (»Iphigenie in Freiheit«), Botho Strauß (»Ithaka. Schauspiel nach den Heimkehr-Gesängen der Odyssee«) and Friedrich Dürrenmatt (»Minotaurus. Eine Ballade«) provide the basis for an inquiry into the problems of the reception of mythology in post-modernism and issues pertaining to unity, continuity and identity in modern-day German literature from east and west.