<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This article explores Madeline Miller’s Circe from the perspective of Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope, the inseparability of space and time in fiction. The article focuses on the chronotopes of the road, the idyll and the threshold in the novel, and how these intersect with its themes of gender and immortality. The island of Aiaia acts as a threshold, transforming all who cross it. Circe’s life on the island, however, is a repetitive idyll; only at the end of the novel does she become a traveller on the road herself rather than just a stop on the way.</p></abstract>

This article explores Madeline Miller’s Circe from the perspective of Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope, the inseparability of space and time in fiction. The article focuses on the chronotopes of the road, the idyll and the threshold in the novel, and how these intersect with its themes of gender and immortality. The island of Aiaia acts as a threshold, transforming all who cross it. Circe’s life on the island, however, is a repetitive idyll; only at the end of the novel does she become a traveller on the road herself rather than just a stop on the way.

The Witch(ES) of Aiaia: Gender, Immortality and the Chronotope in Madeline Miller’s <italic>Circe</italic>

Gender Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The Witch(ES) of Aiaia: Gender, Immortality and the Chronotope in Madeline Miller’s 

This article explores Madeline Miller’s Circe from the perspective of Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope, the inseparability of space and time in fiction. The...

The Witch(ES) of Aiaia: Gender, Immortality and the Chronotope in Madeline Miller’s Circe

Published Online: Feb 01, 2020

Page range: 27 - 38

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/genst-2020-0002

Keywords
Chronotope, gender, idyll, immortality, road, threshold

© 2020 Catherine Macmillan, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

The Witch(ES) of Aiaia: Gender, Immortality and the Chronotope in Madeline Miller’s Circe

Published Online: Feb 01, 2020

Page range: 27 - 38

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/genst-2020-0002

KeywordsChronotope, gender, idyll, immortality, road, threshold

© 2020 Catherine Macmillan, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
Chronotope, gender, idyll, immortality, road, threshold