The Transculturation of Mythic Archetypes: Margaret Atwood’s Circe

Abstract

In this article I will focus on the transformation of mythic archetypes in Margaret Atwood’s collection of poetry You Are Happy. More specifically, I will analyze Atwood’s use of the character Circe (and, indirectly, Odysseus) in the section titled “Circe / Mud Poems.” My hypothesis is that Atwood’s revision of mythic archetypes can find an appropriate interpretation when it is read as a reflection on the colonial condition. For this reason, the treatment of the mythical archetypes will be explained referring to three key concepts in postcolonial studies: ambivalence, mimicry, and transculturation.

Keywords

• Atwood
• Circe
• Odyssey
• Odysseus
• Ambivalence
• Mimicry