The revolutionary recreation of Ulysses’ journey by Natália Correia in The Island of Circe

Abstract

The Island of Circe, published in 1983 by Natália Correia, centres its action in the holiday trip of Negrão’s family to the island of Madeira. Adriano, the young male son, is one of the main characters. He falls in love with an older woman, precisely Ritinha’s mother, the girl who feels attracted to him. As a way of seducing her beloved, Adriano deals with the grownup people and takes acknowledge of Emmeline Hurst, known as “Miss Hurst”, an octogenarian Englishwoman who has lived on the island of Madeira for many years. As a writer dedicated to the investigation of the Homeric Odyssey, Miss Hurst deconstructs, in a revolutionary thesis, Ulysses’ famous return trip to his homeland. It is on this fantastic – or absurd – recreation that this essay will focus. We will show how Natália Correia reads the Homeric tradition through Miss Hurst, the respected “odysseyologist”, as the narrator calls her and by whom the characters of the story take her. A comparison between what can be found in the Odyssey and what Miss Hurst defends will be the main structure of our article.