L’évolution du personnage de Circé en littérature entre œuvres antiques et contemporaines : vers l’expression de revendications féminines à travers la figure de la sorcière
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- This dissertation examines the evolution of the character of Circe in literature. Circe first intervenes in Homer's Odyssey, when Odysseus stays on his island after his return from Troy. She commits an act that will follow her until today in the collective imagination: the transformation of Odysseus' sailors into pigs. Her character developed over the centuries through a profusion of stories, thus creating a true Circean mythical tradition. Magician, poisoner, witch, woman, goddess, how to define Circe? Is she even definable? This dissertation will begin by describing her evolution through two works: Homer's Odyssey (eighth century BCN) and Ovid's Metamorphoses (first century PCN). Whereas in the former, Circe represents a powerful goddess at the service of the hero and his companions, the latter demonizes her character by making her into a sorceress and a desperate and vengeful lover. The protagonist will then be analyzed through three contemporary works: Naissance de l'Odyssée by Jean Giono (1930), Percy Jackson. La Mer des Monstres by Rick Riordan (2006) and Circé by Madeline Miller (2018). This discussion will initiate a dialogue between the character of Circe and the figure of the witch as a spokesperson for women's demands. Ultimately, this dissertation will demonstrate that the character of Circe is extremely ambiguous; she is the one who bewitches through flesh and magical powers, a valuable aid to the hero as well as an evil power, but she can just as easily become the heroine of her own story. In this sense, freeing herself from the masculine authority to which Antiquity subjected her, she joins the subversive character of the figure of the witch and becomes the carrier of feminine ideals.