Feminist Utopia： A New Viewpoint of Interpreting British and American Literature

Shaobin+Zhou

【Abstract】The literary history of feminist utopian novels has always not been concerned by the literature circles and even excluded from the research field of serious feminist literature. From the perspective of feminist utopia， this paper elaborates the definition of utopia and feminist utopia， discusses the development and evolution of feminist utopian works and their influences on feminist utopian literature， points out the criticism and dissatisfaction with male-dominated culture in feminist utopian novels. Through the review and introspection of the living status of the female， the female humanistic care and ecological care are integrated as two new viewpoints of the research on feminist utopian works， so as to comprehensively know the development footprint of feminist utopian literature.

【Key words】feminism； utopia； British and American literature

Overview of feminist utopia

（I） Utopia and feminist utopia

The word “feminist utopia” first occurred in the 1980s. The feminist utopian novels refers to those revealing the feminist thoughts， reflecting the spirit of utopia and concerning the female and human future， with novel as the carrier. The feminist utopian works are called as utopian novel genre. The spirit of utopia is the soul for feminist writing and based on the reality and beyond the reality， which continuously pursues the pioneering spirit of ideal and represents the deepest desire of the female in each era. Its basis is the criticism and negation of bisexual order and also the affirmation and pursuit of ideal bisexual relations mode. Thus， it can be seen from the above that the feminist utopian novels criticize the patriarchal oppression and design the female and human future.

（II） Development and evolution of feminist utopian literatures

The feminist utopian literature emerged in the latter half of the 18th century and vigorously developed into utopian novel genre in the 1820s. From the history of western culture， the feminist utopian thoughts have been of long standing in the literature field. In conclusion， the statement of early feminist utopian thoughts has been scattered， with limited scale.

According to the relevant literature， the feminist utopian literature was first occurred in Platos Timaeus and elaborated in Platos Utopia. Utopia was also mentioned in Plutarchs Lycurgue about the ideal description of Sparta. Besides， the legend of Atlantis inspired many utopian mythologies and the outline and recalling of “Golden Age” in Hesiods Theogony： Works and Days also belonged to early utopian works. The early representative classical works included Sarah Robinson Scotts Temple of Thousand Years published in 1976， Charlotte Perkins Gilmans Herland in the late 19th century and early 20th century， Maggie Piercys Woman on the Edge of Time and Monique Vertigos Guerrilla Girl in the 1960s.

Thomas More redefined the traditional concept of Utopia and integrated the self criticism， thus providing a new imagination space for the outlook on the social reform. The feminist utopian literature was creatively used as a narrative style by Thomas More， who conducted writing practice in the identity of a politician， so his work， Utopia， became a unique genre in Western literature history， laid a foundation for the normal form of modern utopian novels and had an important realistic significance in the development history of western utopian literature.

Influence of feminist utopia on literature

Some American scholars point out： “The reconstruction of human culture advocated by feminist utopia is the objective of feminist writing.” There is a common and consistent objective between feminist thoughts and utopian thoughts， that is， reconstruction of human culture. Therefore， the common objective of literary creation by using the utopian thoughts or feminist thoughts is to integrate the reconstruction of human culture and resistance and subversion of the patriarchal society.

Rebuild the female ego and resist and subvert the patriarchal culture

The patriarchal culture has dominated the whole society over the time， in which it is thought that only the male is the leading force and the representative of human， and the female is only the property of the male or goods for exchange and even the fertility machine and sex object， so the female， which is always controlled and exploited， lives a hollow and helpless life， without any dignity. Among various feminist utopian works， there is only a main line， that is， subversion of patriarchal culture and rebuilding of female ego distorted and suppressed by such culture.

According to the analysis of the representative of feminist utopian works， Charlotte Perkins Gilmans Herland and Mrs. Gaskells Cranford Town， Gilman presents a recognized “woman” which can be regarded as the female spirit and body home， thus successfully accomplishing the pursuit of female genealogy. The female culture is brilliant due to the absence of patriarchal discourse and culture. At the end， the three girls of kingdoms of females get married with three American men， expecting to produce higher civilization. However， Mrs. Gaskells Cranford Town builds an community comprising the female， which only rejects the male values， rather than the male. This symbolizes that the classical feminist utopian novels have preliminarily got out of narrow sense of radical feminists and also builds the female narrator. The interlacing of personal narrative voice and collective narrative voices can contemporarily put them in the community and provide the legal basis. The two works gather people “scattered among the male” to create the conditions of “we”， so as to form the “collective narrative voice” at different levels.

In conclusion， the feminist utopian works are not only the female liberation， but also the sound development of human， which think the construction of feminist culture and feminist discourse and the deconstruction of patriarchal culture are interlaced and the creation of bisexual utopia is optimistic when the general consciousness of ‘human contains both the male and the female， rather than only the male. The rebuilding of female ego and resistance and subversion of patriarchal culture are the main line running thought such works.

Two new viewpoints in the research on feminist utopian literature

（I） Review and retrospection of the living status of the female

The living status of the female is the realistic life foundation of feminist utopian novels， in other words， the social imbalance caused by the increasingly tight bisexual relations and the survival predicament in the man-centered society have always been the core problems concerned by the feminist utopian literature.

（II） Ecological care in the feminist utopian works

It is known that the essential way to solving the ecological crisis is to realize the harmony and balance of science and ecology as well as human and nature. With the increasingly development and emerging of ecological feminist thoughts， the feminist utopian literature mainly discusses the problem about how to balance the economic development and ecological environment and how to realize the harmony of human and nature. Since the 20th century， the feminist utopian literature has paid great attention to the social crisis and environmental crisis that confuse the human society and discussed how to realize the harmony between science and ecology as well as human and nature by various means， taken mutual benefits and love as the core values and combined the female liberation and ecological problems.

In The Left Hand of Darkness， the scientific and technological development is slow and the high technology of Cold Star is mainly used to resist the cold and bad natural environment. Besides， the scientific and technological development of human has certain limitation and precondition and the scientific and technological application is to protect the normal operation of ecosystem. For example， the scientific and technological results which take three years on the earth can be accomplished for about 30 years on Cold Star.

In The Handmaid's Tale， the author never claims to restrain the scientific and technological development. The feminist utopian novels highlight the technological development under the guidance of morality and ethics and keeps the balance of survival and development， science and humanity and human and nature.

Conclusion

The increasingly serious ecological crisis， population crisis， gender discrimination and a series of other problems always restrain the development of human society. Under this severe social background， many feminist utopian litterateurs pursue and look forward to the ideal society due to their dissatisfaction with the realistic life， show the females deepest desire and pursuit and affirmation of ideal bisexual relation mode， strive to open a writing path different from the realism， replace the traditional backward social mechanism by the social structure characterized by the social sharing and natural harmony， and express their longing for the female future and imagination of the beautiful human society in the future in the form of utopian works， so as to promote people to review and retrospect the realistic social environment that they live.

References：

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