The myth of Circe and Odysseus has been told, interpreted and retold from Homer's time to the present. This thesis begins with a detailed study of Homer's balancing of positive and negative elements of the myth and argues that Homer's Circe is connected with age-old traditions of goddess worship, particularly of Artemis of Ephesus. Chapters III and IV investigate the cultural context in which the purely negative Circe of the Homeric allegorists developed and how this allegorical Circe affected works by other ancient writers, particularly Virgil and Ovid. Later chapters demonstrate how this negative allegorical view of Circe prevailed through the Renaissance and seventeenth century, as evidenced in mythographies, Calderon's plays and by Spenser's Acrasia. The study concludes that allegorical interpretations of the Circe myth were founded on body-soul dualism, so that not until this belief is questioned and abandoned by Joyce and Atwood in the twentieth century are more original and/or positive Circes found.

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Her Terrible Splendor is a poetry collection that transports the Greek witch-goddess Circe from her mythical island of Aeaea to modern-day East Texas, where I was raised. By locating Circe in the Piney Woods, I heighten the strangeness that I identify with that setting and open up new contexts for considering Circe as a woman, as an enchanter, and as figure of retelling and revision. Circe appears in an array of roles—friend, lover, mentor, alter-ego, muse—as the poems view her through different lenses, including ekphrastic responses to visual art, rewritings of myths, and "portrait" poems that cast people from the human speaker's life as the goddess herself. A powerful mythic woman who works alone and creates a haven for strange creatures and lost humans, Circe offers a way for the manuscript to consider the complex, multifaceted process of coming of age as a woman, self-making as myth-making.

This thesis attempts to read ¡§Circe¡¨from Freudian perspectives to explore Joyce's narrative intermingling of psychical and historical worlds. It begins with an analysis of the haunting theme in this chapter,the dead, which constantly returns in¡§fantastic scenes,¡¨ followed by an elaboration on the way the ¡§Uncanny¡¨and the¡§Phantasy¡¨operate in each scene. These fantastic scenes,for me,function as signifiers for the unconscious of Joyce's characters and text:they express,abnegate, ridicule,exaggerate,and even betray the psyche of the two male protagonists¡Xespecially Bloom's castration complex¡Xand leads to a narrative and character aberration,allowing Joyce to repudiate the tradition of drama and novel, especially the English narrative convention of linear storytelling. By constructing a fantastic Ireland through crooked mirroring,Joyce becomes not only an international writer, but also an Irish writer.

Fusion reactions between 12C nuclei are among the most important in stellar evolution since they determine the destiny of massive stars (> 8 M). At thermonuclear energies (Ecm=1.5 ± 0.3 MeV), the 12C+12C reactions mainly proceed through 20Ne+α and 23Na+p channels. Since these energies are much lower than the height of the Coulomb barrier (Ecm= 6.1 MeV), the direct measurements of the 12C+12C reactions are very challenging because of the extremely small cross sections involved and the high beam-induced background originating from impurities in the targets. In addition, the 12C+12C reaction forms 24Mg at relatively high excitation energies (above the 12C 13.93 MeV thresholds) where molecular configurations are possible. Theoretical models fail to reproduce such structures and as a result, the extrapolation of high-energy cross section data towards the energy of astrophysical interest remain uncertain by 2-3 orders of magnitude. Further experimental efforts to measure at the lowest accessible energies are therefore in need. However, additionally to the extremely low cross sections and the resonant structure, the measurements at stellar energies of the 12C+12C reactions are troublesome due to natural hydrogen and deuterium contamination in the carbon targets. These target contaminants hamper the measurement of the 12C+12C process in all exit channels given that the 12C+1,2H reactions cross sections are considerably higher than that of the reaction of interest. In consequence, the use of ultra-low H content graphite targets and a study of the target behaviour under beam bombardment are necessary. This work focused on the experimental measurements of the 12C(12C,p)23Na and 12C(12C,α)20Ne reactions using charge particle detection. Although both channels were measured, only the proton channel was analysed and discussed in this thesis due to time constrains. The experiment was performed at the 3 MV pelletron tandem accelerator of the CIRCE (Centre for Isotopic Research on the Cultural and Environmental heritage) laboratory in Caserta, Italy. The experimental approach involved the development of optical calculations for optimal beam transportation (using the software COSY), the use of a four ΔE-Erest detectors system (a variable pressure CF4 ionization chamber used as the ΔE detector and a 300 mm2 Si detector used as the Erest) called GASTLY (GAs Silicon Two-Layer sYstem) and a study of the deuterium (hydrogen does not contribute to the beam-induced background at the detection angles and beam energies used here) contamination in graphite targets. The GASTLY detectors were placed at backward angles (121, 143 and 156o respect to the beam axis) and the 12C+12C reactions were investigated using carbon beams of Ecm=4.30 - 2.52 MeV with intensities of the order of μA. Highly Ordered Pyrolytic Graphite (HOPG) and highly pure (99.8%) natural graphite targets were used for the deuterium contamination study. A thermocamera was used to constantly monitor the target temperature during beam bombardment, allowing the investigation of target's deuterium content as a function of target temperature. Results showed a decrease in target's deuterium content of 53-80% in the target's temperature range of 200-1200 °C, depending on the type of target and detection angle. Furthermore, it was found that surrounding the scattering chamber with a nitrogen atmosphere while measuring low counting rate reactions (such as 12C+12C at low energies), the HOPG target's deuterium content decreases to about half its original value for a target temperature in the range between 800-1100 °C. For the 12C+12C reactions measurements, the HOPG target was used, maintaining high target temperatures. The p0-6 proton groups of the 12C(12C,p)23Na reaction were analysed and their yields, cross sections and astrophysical S-factors were obtained and are presented in this thesis. A comparison with previous data available in the literature is also presented, together with an indication for possible improvements in future investigations.

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.

Circe (2018) by Madeline Miller is a retelling of The Odyssey from the perspective of the witch Circe. The novel challenges the previous portrayal of Circe as a vindictive seductress and provides insight into the narrative of a woman negotiating a man’s world, in which she is denied autonomy due to her gender. This essay focuses on how oppressive structures prevent the protagonist to psychologically develop towards their true potential in Circe. Jungian psychoanalytic theory of individuation and archetypes are applied to analyze the psychological process. In addition, the impact of hegemonic masculinity in Circe is examined as it stunts the protagonist’s progress in individuation. Furthermore, Circe can be a tool in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in upper secondary school to enable discussions on gender oppression and unjust social structures. A feminist reading of the individuation process in Circe can provide new insight into the effects of gender oppression as it concerns the psychological impact of unjust treatment.

This thesis aims to position Circe by Madeline Miller as an example of feminist revisionist mythmaking and investigate some of the novel’s revisionary practices. I thus begin by introducing the project of feminist revisionism, as conceptualized by several different feminist thinkers. I then move on to describe two methods by which Circe reimagines the stories of the Epic Cycle. I argue that the first method, in the analysis of which I primarily use the work of the formalist Caroline Levine on hierarchies, is to subvert gender and immortality – two world-organizing binaries of Greek myth. I then make the argument that Circe also revises myth on the level of narrative, which I support with Teresa de Lauretis’ work on narrative morphology. The study concludes that both these methods are being employed in Circe and are successful in reimagining myth from a feminist perspective. My thesis results in a better understanding of the ways in which Greek myth is being rewritten by contemporary feminists in popular literature.

The purpose of this study is to locate spatial manifestations of power, and acts of agency, by conducting a subversive reading of the female immortal threats in Homer’s Odyssey. With an aim to question preconceived notions on sexuality, gender and power, I draw on the theoretical perspectives of gender theorists J. Butler and J. Halberstam in my reading of non-normative female displays of power. The material in question is the adventures in the Odyssey that present female immortals, functioning as antagonists in the epos’ narrative structure. Space and power make the foundation in the deconstruction of these adventures. I approach the subject using analytical tools from the spatial methodology of K. Knott. Starting with ‘location’ I apply analytical categories such as ‘physical space’, ‘social space’, ‘properties of space’ and ‘spatial aspects’ in order to critically analyze spatial manifestations of power in each adventure. By placing the female immortal in the subject position, this work shows how she utilizes her space in order to dominate the mortal man she encounters. This is conducted through non-normative acts such as isolation and restriction. The study highlights the problem of putting ‘sex’ as the only, or dominant, focus in the reading of these adventures. The female immortals that Odysseus encounters, can by spatial analysis be shown to act autonomously towards mortal intruders that enter their territory.  They present themselves as having the right to take a mortal man for a husband, as well as kill him or keep him as a prisoner. This suggests that their status as immortal exceeds Odysseus’ male gender, whilst still being restricted by the gender hierarchy of her immortal society. The spatial analysis show that the female immortal possesses the agency of the mortal female as well as of the mortal male within in their oikos. The female immortal displays power by sustaining her space, as well as by regulating the movements of the mortal man, in and out of, and sometimes beyond, her space.

Uppsatsen är en litteraturvetenskaplig studie av makt och maskuliniteter i Madeline Millers roman Circe (2018). Syftet med uppsatsen är “att granska maktförhållanden mellan män och kvinnor, men också mellan individer av samma kön” samt “hur Miller skildrar Kirkes relation till olika män för att utreda hur patriarkala hierarkier upprätthålls, men också hur den traditionella strukturen utmanas av nya föreställningar om kön, genus och sexualitet”. Uppsatsen utgår från fem nyckelscener i romanen som på skilda sätt belyser Kirkes möten med, och relation till, olika slags män och maskuliniteter. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten är R.W Connells – och James W. Messerschmidts vidareutveckling av – begreppet “hegemonisk maskulinitet”, men analysen relateras också till tidigare forskning om Kirke-gestalten samt till forskning om den populära kärleksromanen. I uppsatsen framgår att Kirke är underordnad en patriarkal maktstruktur, men att hon – genom att efterlikna den överordnade maskulinitetens brutala metoder – är tillräckligt stark för att utmana det patriarkala systemet. Trots det väljer Kirke den privata lyckan med en man som respekterar henne framför att krossa patriarkatet. I helhet visar dock uppsatsen att kvinnan är tillräckligt stark för att förändra samhället om hon vill.