Rewritings of Circe: Representation, Resistance, and Change in Feminist Revisionism

Abstract: This paper analyses the feminist revisionism of the Circe-myth in the rewritings by Eudora Welty, Margaret Atwood, and Madeline Miller. To that end, the paper first examines three different ways of discussing rewritings: Jeremy M. Rosen’s genre of minor-character elaboration, Linda Hutcheon’s take on postmodern parody, and Alicia Ostriker’s feminist revisionist mythmaking. Then, after positioning itself with the feminist revisionism, the paper conducts a brief reading of the myth as it appears in the Odyssey, followed by readings of the three rewritings: Welty’s short story “Circe,” Atwood’s poetry cycle “Circe/Mud Poems,” and Miller’s novel Circe. Through the reading of these works together, a pattern emerges of criticising former representations, exploring why they are problematic, and resisting them in order to create change.