AEAEA IS REVISITED: REVISIONIST MYTHMAKINGSTRATEGIES IN MADELINE MILLER'S CIRCE

This article analyses the American novelist Madeline Miller's latest work Circe through the lens of revisionist mythmaking proposed and de?ned by Alicia Ostriker. Revisionist mythmaking aims at challenging and debunking the gender stereotypes embedded in myths and fairy tales by revising and retelling them from a female perspective. In Circe, Miller revisits the myth of Circe, a renowned sorceress in Greek mythology who is reputed to turn sailors into swine by magic. Miller uses the traditional image of Circe as a witch, but she makes marked changes in the nature of this ancient image. She gives voice to the longsilenced Circe and lets her tell her own story and recount her own experiences. In Miller's book, contrary to the ancient stories and mythological accounts concerning the story of Circe, she is portrayed as a multifaced and evolving character who displays a vast array of emotions from jealousy, anger, despair, sorrow to pity, love and even postpartum depression. Miller rewrites and re-evaluates the image of Circe so as to make a correction of its representation, and thus, to achieve a cultural change.