The Rewritten Female Characters from Traditional Myths--Case Analysis Based on Qingshe and Circe

Novelists have continuously invoked myths and epics. With familiar characters, novelists tell new stories and reflect modern problems in their creations. Chinese writer Bihua Li and American writer Madeline Miller both reframed a woman’s story in their works Qingshe and Circe, critically reflecting on how the myths depict women from the perspective of patriarchy and stereotypes. This paper will compare the similarities and differences between the two novels and analyze how the two authors reflect on the predicament of female survival with classical figures.