Meryl Bazaman

A2 Utopian Universality Conveyed by Earth Mother/ Primordial Nurturer Literary Archetype

Utopias are easily regarded as us versus them, either/or, Western or multicultural. In my previous works, I have routinely argued that utopias are distinctively monocultural based on how architecture, clothing, intellectual ideas all appear to be derived from Greco-Roman civilization.  My desire to challenge this assumption, however, inspired me to explore what features a contemporary literary utopian alternative might possess. Is there an essence that binds both the monocultural and multicultural utopias through contemporary and revised shared archetypes that span across cultures and time? Should these utopian unifiers be disregarded because of an individual’s innate subjectivity or reexamined with individual bias taken into account?  If utopias appear to answer the question of what could be; is there the slightest possibility that exploration of a single reoccurring literary archetype found in utopian literature – that of Earth Mother or Primordial Nurturer could occur universally? This essay is an exercise exploring how a particular literary archetype of Earth Mother, whether consistent or redefined, might provide a way to understand universality in Utopian Studies.

Literary archetypes are typically defined as recurring symbols or themes found throughout time and across cultures. Inspired by Jungian theory, literary archetypes typically alluded to the possibility of an innate, universal rationale that projects itself through recurring symbols such as the earth mother or family found throughout monocultural and multicultural literature. In utopian literature, these traditional mother archetypes seemed to appear in Gilman’s Herland and selections from Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Both authors conveyed the image of the quintessential earth mother: the caring, loving woman or women who sustain and nourish their young. Their mothers despite age and number are sexually identified as female, capable of molding the earth in a way to provide sustenance for their young, and nurturers to the core.

The Women of Herland live in land defined by maternity. Gilman’s Moadine described this child-centric state of Motherhood as, “The children in this country are the one center and focus of all our thoughts. Every step of our advance is always considered in its effect on them-on the race. You see, we are Mothers..” (Gilman, 66).  In Herland, the remaining animals have lost their wild dispositions so as not to harm children. The trees’ fruit has been modified strictly to produce for the consumption of children. Even particular traits have been minimized for the sake of producing particular dispositions within children. The Women of Herland have cultivated the production of their lives for the sake of their children. By harnessing the advances of science, education, nutrition, biology, these earth Women harness the land and the body for the sake of their young. The bountiful earth and these bountiful, utopian earth- Mothers provide unconditionally in unison at the “good place” of their conception.      

The real world, dystopian American South also recorded utopian archetypes in its literature. Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl offers multiple accounts of this female sex based, earth mother utopian archetype in the descriptions of her grandmother. Jacobs describes her grandmother as, “an indispensable personage in the household, officiating in all capacities from cook and wet nurse to seamstress…” (Jacobs, 2). Jacobs’s grandmother like the Women of Herland feed, clothed, and cared for the young in her charge. As the Women in Herland fed their young with fruit bearing trees, Jacobs’s grandmother offered the life giving, liquid sustenance of her breast. Both the Women of Herland and Jacobs’s grandmother shaped the education, dietary needs, and development of the young in their care. Her grandmother’s unconditional love and nurturing offered Jacobs a utopian bliss that lifted her out of the dystopian realities and transformed her into a healthy, self -aware youth.

Both Gilman’s Herland and Harriet Jacobs’s Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl provide the reader with particular examples of the Earth Mother as a utopian archetype. Variance, however, in how the Earth Mother is expressed and who the Earth Mother is seems to offer contrary evidence to the Jung inspired literary archetype. What if the Earth Mother is not sexually female, does not provide dietary nourishment directly, or is not even a single individual which is also an aspect of Herland? Does the Earth Mother archetype become irrelevant or does it transform to incorporate this new maternal entity? Could transforming this literary utopian archetype be deconstructing mother into something more inclusive, more ancient in origin – the primordial nurturer? Piercy, Douglass, and Callenbach identify nurturers in their respective utopias. These nurturers range from sexually androgynous, sexually male, and sexually male and female with variation in gender roles, yet they share common base traits that are identified in the utopian literature archetypes of an Earth Mother: each or all provide nutrition, care, and intellectual development. They are linked not simply by the physical boundaries of sex, gender, or number. They are linked by their actions; their ability to give care and nourish the young of their respective utopias.               

Marge Piercy’s Woman on the Edge of Time has completely eradicated sex from the Earth Mother archetype. As technology has been exchanged for biology, humans are no longer restricted by gender roles or sex based expectations of gender roles. Rather, both men and women can completely, unabashedly share in this nurturer archetype. This is physically demonstrated by Piercy’s sexually male character Barbarossa as, “…he begun to nurse…” (Piercy, 134). Bearded Barbarossa does not possess a physical womb but his breast offers nourishment to the crying baby in the brooder. Piercy transforms motherhood into a collective of bisexual nurturers where children are products of all material and immaterial; truly nourished products of the world.

Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass; an American Slave reverts to traditional sex roles but offers an example of a male as nurturer. Douglass writes of Mr. Nathan Johnson, “I was hungry, and he gave me meat; I was thirsty, and he gave me drink; I was a stranger, and he took me in…”(Douglass, 3).Upon Douglass’s arrival to Maryland, Johnson nurtured him. The Southern American dystopia possessed males who beat, denied, and controlled substance. In the Utopian American North of Maryland, male nurturers such as Nathan Johnson gave what they could to their brothers whether it was meant for physical or mental consumption. Nathan Johnson offered his figurative breast – a nurturing nature – that gave Douglass access to the utopian care so in contrast to the Dystopia he had left behind.

Callenbach’s Ecotopia interestingly combines elements of the Earth Mother utopian archetype with the hypothesized primordial nurturer archetype. Reporter William Weston reports of Ecotopia that, “…in the nurturing of children while they are under two, women continue this dominance; men participate extensively in the care and upbringing of the very young, but in cases of conflict the mothers have the final say…the fathers…evidently feel that their time of greater influence on the young will come later…”(Callenbach, 70). Unlike Piercy or Douglass, Callenbach’s Ecotopian nurturers are not androgynous or distinctively male. The women of Ecotopia still physically rear and nurture their children. The gender based division of labor, however, has changed substantially. Ecotopian men are now expected to incorporate care giving into their sector of rearing. They are now active nurturing agents in the lives of their children. Ecotopian men share in the feeding, loving, and guidance of their young as equals bound by traditional utopian archetypes.      

Does the literary Mother Earth/ Primordial Nurturer literary archetype truly provide a successful way to gauge universality in utopian literature? Gilman, Jacobs, Piercy, Douglass, and Callenbach all utopian texts that span throughout culture and time appear to share a variation of this archetype, but are appearances deceiving? Is this collaborative phenomenon simply an elaborate work of individual bias or a true exploration of a less charted utopian literature definer? Can all utopias be explored through shared archetypes or must they be explored based on what is perceived to be their disparate intentions? 

Former student, Cana Hauerland states in her 2009 Final, “utopia is a universal impulse, and the utopia in multi-cultural texts should be shared with, but distinguished from the Western utopias with regards to the complex multi-culture utopia.” Both Hauerland and I agree that utopias are universal; however, how we demonstrate universality appears to be quite distinctive. Hauerland unifies her utopian texts through the idea of them existing as “good places” and distinguishing them through differentiating intentions. Whereas, I seek to demonstrate universality by exploring and examining how the Mother Earth/ Primordial Nurturer archetype reemerges throughout time and culture in utopian text. Is Hauerland’s analysis that far removed from my own?  If both Hauerland and I agree that utopias share certain permanent, unchanging elements, could we not find different ways to draw similar conclusions? I believe despite or respective bias and subjective motives; it is feasible.

Utopias archetypes act like expansive mandalas with unifying core elements rather than chaotic fragments that can only be perceived by select individuals of particular racial, social, and geographical backgrounds during specific points of history. Exploration of a single shared Mother Earth/Primordial Nurturer archetype presents a feasibly argument that unifies a wide assortment of utopian text that vary in cultural origin and throughout time.

Sources:

Callenbach, Ernest. Ecotopia. New York: Bantam Books, 1975. Print.

Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, n.p, 1845. Print.

Gilman, Charlotte. Herland. New York: Pantheon Books, 1979. Print.

Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, n.p. 1861. Print.