Writing a Better Ending: How Feminist Utopian Literature Subverts Patriarchy (original) (raw)
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“When the present determines the future, but the approximate present does not approximately determine the future. The present can only be a rough template, or approximation, of the future.” (Chaos Theory) “Sentiment is the enemy of reason” states the heroine of Grrlstown, my novel-in-progress. Like me, Celadon believes that sentimental attachments delay human progress by impeding our ability to discard outdated, non-viable socio-political practices and traditional, patriarchal values in favor of creating new modes of shared economic development that benefit the greatest number of people. In the tradition of feminist utopian novels, Celadon builds an isolated, all-female society where the barter system replaces currency and each hand-picked resident brings a specific set of skills to the village, thus launching the first completely Self-Sustaining Society (termed an S3). The birth of a boy throws the stable enclave into chaos, and both internal and external forces threaten Celadon’s ambitious experiment. But as I began my research for the novel and seriously contemplated the problems inherent in designing a utopian society, I was stymied by the enormity of the task. Grrlstown was both technically and conceptually too big. Thomas De Quincey once described his desire to write a complicated book as being “a labor too great for the architect.” and more than a decade ago, Grrlstown’s thematic and plot complexities were beyond me. I had to set it aside for further contemplation. What defines utopia? How have writers explored these ideas and how do fictional utopias compare to real world societies? Can a book serve as a viable thought model for creating literal change on a grand scale? How do feminist utopias differ from those of male writers? Andlastly, how do utopian practices and concepts as portrayed in literature align with contemporary religious ideals, values and traditions? It’s essential to understand how utopian hope was subsumed by the dystopian pessimism that now captivates the popular imagination and why feminists essentially abandoned utopia as a literary genre and an ideal with potentiality for real-world implementation. Utopian and dystopian narratives present alternate realities that reflect human hopes and fears, but reality itself is mutable and perception-based: “[R]eality is never a universal concept…what passes for reality in any culture is the product of that culture’s codes (a system of signs, whose rules and conventions are shared amongst members of a culture, and which is used to generate and circulate meanings in and for that culture)” (Beck 140). However, story, not reality, is how humans make sense of the world and our purpose in it. Every novel, play, movie, anecdote, parable, myth, news article, joke, commercial, video clip and television show is a story with demonstrated or inferred cause and effect, beginning, middle and end. Our photographs, artworks and music tell a story by hitting us with the emotional impact of an extrapolated event. Our dreaming brains even tell us stories while we sleep. Yet there are few realistic utopian tales of equitable, sustainable societies presented in literature, film or the media. Dystopian narratives of a catastrophic world’s end and post-apocalyptic future prevail on the bookshelves and in cinema (an Amazon.com search for “dystopian fiction” yields more than 7,400 works compared to utopian fiction’s 1,430). When assessing the possibilities of establishing a real-world utopia, it is critical to understand the political, economic and cultural causes of this dystopian cultural shift and how writers can provide more beneficial alternatives. I believe that fiction sets the template for ideas that transmute into actionable, real-world revolution. It is a proven medium for proposing and evaluating social change. Literature is a form of intellectual activism, and as radical feminist and environmentalist Lierre Keith states, “The task of an activist is not to navigate systems of oppressive power with as much personal integrity as possible; it is to dismantle those systems.” In this paper, I’ll examine the reasons feminist writers have typically excluded men from their utopian visions and discuss the need for inclusive utopias that propose realistic, cooperative societies. I’ll also explore how fiction has sought to rewrite the current story by proposing new realities that provide a vision of what may be if we’re willing to uproot the anachronistic beliefs and practices that contribute to constant cycles of violent oppression, which rob humanity of its basic rights. So what happens if we dismantle and reconstruct our future reality by changing the stories we tell ourselves?
The temporal displacement of utopia and dystopia in feminist speculative fiction
2015
Feminist speculative fiction authors make frequent use of the defamiliarized context of utopian and dystopian worlds in order to explore various gender-related issues. The article discusses the use of the temporal dimension of the setting of these texts. The choice of a futuristic setting and correlating it with either utopia or dystopia helps authors to interrogate the present, as it allows not only for extrapolation regarding the future, but also for an assessment of the extratextual present from an imagined historical perspective. It creates a narrative space for comparing and contrasting different social realities, with time serving as a lens which facilitates this analysis. Such a narrative choice creates the desired effect of defamiliarization, enhancing the reader’s cognition and, consequently, raising an awareness regarding issues which are central to feminist philosophy and relevant to the contemporary social situation of women.
Editor's Introduction Imagining a Better World: A Survey of Feminist Utopian Literature
The American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2018
The dominant story of Western culture in the past two centuries has been one derived from Robert Thomas Malthus and Charles Darwin, presented in terms of biological determinism and uncompromising economic competition. A society based on these principles will eventually devour itself through the destruction of nature and the human spirit. That story has been particularly devastating to women, minorities, and the poor. There is a desperate need for alternative stories to reveal the sickness of our current system and to present strategies for change. To paraphrase novelist Marge Piercy (2003), if you cannot imagine anything different, all you can ask for is more of the same. The world needs a heavy dose of social dreaming and the work of feminist utopian fiction offers a fertile place to begin.
Radical Utopias of the 20th century: Anti-authoritarian Perspectives in Feminist Science Fiction
Feminist science fiction as a literary sub-genre emerged in the 1960s, next to the development of radical feminism as a political theory, and was clearly influenced by it. At the same time, in an era when gender equality has been only ostensibly attained, and when social and political organization continue to be based upon patriarchal structures, feminism remains relevant. In the framework of the present, where patriarchy remains a fundamental basis for social and political organization, reinforced by capitalism (as an economic as well as a political system), the reconsideration and in-depth examination of works of feminist science fiction that not only criticize the patriarchal/ capitalist system, but also elaborate on alternative forms of organization (such as the novels discussed in this paper), continue to be meaningful. This thesis explores the relationships between science fiction, radical feminism, and social transformation through an analysis of feminist science fiction novels by Marge Piercy, Monique Wittig and Ursula Le Guin – works that also draw connections to radical feminism. The particular novels were chosen because, as argued by this thesis, they embrace anti-authoritarian perspectives through utopian and dystopian tensions incorporating an understanding of utopia as both a literary mode and a form of social struggle, which involves gender liberation, class struggle and the abolition of hierarchical and capitalist structures. The tensions between the contemporary reality and the utopian vision involve the likelihood of a dystopian future; social transformations on a collective level so as to evade the possibility of a dystopian future; and the need to radically change intersubjective relations in order to attain a eutopian future. The argument this thesis seeks to demonstrate is that feminist science fiction provides a meaningful context to both criticize the existing patriarchal/ capitalist system, but also to envision alternative forms of organization that are based on autonomy and collectivity. The rethinking of gender identities, the elimination of class divisions, and the complete rejection of discrimination play a vital role towards this direction. At the same time, works of feminist science fiction establish a dialectical relationship with the reader, engaging her/him not only in a critique of the contemporary structures of organization, but also in a critique of the utopian texts’ own structures, and demanding from her/him to take political decisions regarding her/his own position towards her/his contemporary social, political, and economic system. This argument is analyzed in the following manner: Chapter One examines linguistic utopias in feminist science fiction, looking at works by Monique Wittig and Ursula Le Guin, as well as Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time. What is argued in this chapter is that language is yet another system (a system of communication), which is based on patriarchal structures. Language has been developed in the patriarchal context of ‘Logos’ and thus, it contains and also promotes patriarchal believes, ideas, and stereotypes. Feminist science fiction exposes the inherently phallogocentric structures of language, but it also endeavors to reconstruct language as a tool towards gender liberation. Language as ‘écriture feminine’ engages repressed female voices, giving space to ‘otherness,’ to a multiplicity of othernesses, and thus undermining the idea that woman is merely ‘not man’ and rejecting all stereotypes imposed by patriarchal order. Écriture feminine has been long discussed with respect to canonical francophone literature, but rarely in relation to feminist science fiction, which is what this chapter attempts to do. Chapter Two reflects on the potential of anarchist (e)utopias and the problematic of the capitalist state (as a dystopia) in feminist science fiction, particularly in Ursula Le Guin’s The Dispossessed and Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time. In the term ‘anarchist (e)utopias’ ‘e’ is put in parentheses with the purpose of raising the question whether such depictions constitute eutopias (a Greek word translated as “good places”) or utopias (again a Greek word translated as “no places”). The argument this chapter seeks to make is that feminist science fiction depicts ‘utopias’ and ‘dystopias’ in situations of mutual tension, so as to produce a critique of the dystopic capitalist system, and so as to open the way towards envisioning alternative, non-hierarchical forms of social, and political organization. Moreover, this chapter seeks to demonstrate that feminist utopias are in essence critical utopias, in Moylan’s terms, since they constitute a better alternative to the contemporary society, but they are not devoid of difficulties. Finally, Chapter Three considers the relationship between feminist science fiction and cyberpunk dystopias and its dynamics, and examines Marge Piercy’s He, She and It in an attempt to demonstrate that the adoption of cyberpunk dystopias by feminist science fiction has opened up the space for a political critique of capitalism through critical dystopias. Moreover, it reflects on the notion of the cyborg, endeavoring to reveal its radical (and) feminist dynamics.
An exploration of the lineage of female utopian literature
Crossroads. A Journal of English Studies, 2019
My paper assesses the effects of periodization on feminist representations of utopias. The first text acknowledged is Margaret Cavendish’s The Blazing World, followed by Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland, and concluding with Angela Carter’s collection of short stories entitled The Bloody Chamber. The paper demonstrates how one can mark the different movements within feminism throughout history as the nature of the utopian genre is that it reflects the desires of individuals within contemporary society. The utopia as a genre is becoming an increasingly diverse literary segment and one which can be described as under construction. We are moving towards new terms such as ‘ustopia’ which acknowledges that one’s utopia can be another’s dystopia. The utopian genre fuels and supports critical and satirical writing and so the method of periodization and assessing its lineage leads to illuminating details on historical movements which in this case is feminism.
Altered States: Feminist Utopian Literature
This thesis interrogates the interaction between feminist utopianism and altered states of consciousness in fiction from 1970 onwards. The thesis develops further both Lyman Tower Sargent's definition of utopianism as "social dreaming" and Tom Moylan's understanding of critical utopia. It also develops and expands Lucy Sargisson's definition of feminist utopianism as subversive, fluid, ambiguous and committed to ongoing personal and social transfonnation. Utopianism must challenge society's nonns and values, offering both social critique and social vision. I argue throughout this work that transfonning individual consciousness is a vital step towards social change.
Utopias of/f Language in Contemporary Feminist Literary Dystopias(*)
Utopian Studies, 2000
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