Feminism and Patriarchy in Madeline Miller's Circe and Natalie Haynes' Stone Blind

Abstract

For the past two decades, rewritings of mythology have gained in popularity within literature. Rewritings of Greek myths are especially prevalent, with a common theme among many of them being women’s stories. The main goal of this thesis is to explore the effects of patriarchal social norms on women’s behavior, especially toward each other, in contemporary feminist Greek mythology rewritings. To do this, I perform comparative analyses of the gender dynamics and resulting female rage in Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes and Circe by Madeline Miller in two separate chapters. I also contextualize the two novels in recent feminist history by comparing the use of the witch image in European and North American history, and contemporary media and politics, and by briefly exploring the evolution of the Medusa head as symbolism. In this thesis, I argue that the animosity between the female characters is caused by the patriarchal suppression of women, and that in a world where women in power are harassed and called witches, and women are attacked and assaulted every day, these novels are a form of resistance and solidarity.