LITR 5737: Literary & Historical Utopias
Historical Presentation 2007

Tuesday, 12 June:

Historical presentation: Brouke M. Rose-Carpenter: Feminist Utopias

Feminist Utopias: Their only existence is through fiction.

Feminist Utopian Novel: one which a. contrasts the present with an envisioned idealized society (separated by time or space), b. offers a comprehensive critique of present values/conditions, c. sees male institutions as a major cause of present social ills, and d. presents women not only as at least the equals of men but also as the sole arbiters of their reproductive functions. (definition brought to us by: http://feministsf.org)

Through my research I was shocked to discover that, as far as I could find, there have been no attempts to create a feminist utopia.  Where other utopias have been created through different forms of inspiration, it seems that a feminist utopia has been over looked.  Why is that so?

It seems that the only place one can find any form of a feminist utopia is through literature, which led me on the search for feminist utopian books.

On the Internet there are multiple sites to help anyone find a feminist utopian book, although I was surprised at the category these books are listed under. 

Most utopian books are simply put under “fiction”, but almost all of the feminist utopian books are labeled “science fiction”.  Why is that? 

Either way, my research had to be looked at in rather large amount.

So let us start at the beginning…

 

History

There is no way to cover all of the works so here are some highlights, and how they consider them.

B.F.: Before Frankenstein

  • 1666/8: Margaret Cavendish, The Blazing World.  Is identified by Lyman Tower Sargent as the first utopian fiction in English by a woman. -- Part fantasy, part feminist utopia, and part scientific compendium. The book was seen as another manifestation of her profound oddness, and its critical reception has not been much better.  Until the last decade. To me, it's interesting as a symptom of a female mind frustrated by social strictures, as an example of the uneasy negotiations between actual author and narrative voice common to early modern prose fiction, as a commentary on the social use of fiction, and as a precursor to Gulliver's Travels.

 

The Nineteenth Century  A.F.: After Frankenstein

  • Late 19th/early 20th cent. -  Suffragette backlash: load of novels published where humorless women take over the world, for good but more often for ill; laughing valiant men usually take it right back to the satisfaction of both sexes.
     
  • 1905 Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, “Sultana’s Dream”. -- A short story in which the Sultana visits Ladyland, where purdah has been reversed to the great benefit of the land.
     
  • 1915 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Herland.
     
  • 1963 Women start to write Science Fiction
     
  • 1974 Ursula K. Le Guin, The Dispossessed.  -- Shevek, a brilliant physicist, decides to take action. he will seek answers, question the unquestionable, and attempt to tear down the walls of hatred that have isolated his planet of anarchists from the rest of the civilized universe. To do this dangerous task will mean giving up his family and possibly his life. Shevek must make the unprecedented journey to the utopian mother planet, Anarres, to challenge the complex structures of life and living, and ignite the fires of change.
     
  • 1976 Marge Piercy, Woman on the Edge of Time. -- Into the mind of thirty-seven-year-old Consuelo (Connie) Ramos, a woman who exists on the fringes of life in contemporary New York City. Early in the novel Connie beats up her niece's pimp and is committed - again - to the psychiatric ward in Bellevue Hospital. The novel shifts between the horrible conditions in psychiatric wards and the year 2137, as Connie at first talks to, then time travels with Luciente, a person from that future time. Luciente lives in a non-sexist, communal country where people's survival is ensured based on need, not money. A sense of freedom, choice, and safety are part of Luciente's world; Connie's world is the complete opposite. Though Connie struggles to stand up for herself and others in the treatment centers, she knows that the drugs she is forced to take weaken her in every way. She knows she shouldn't be there, knows how to play the game, and tells herself "You want to stop acting out. Speak up in Tuesday group therapy (but not too much and never about staff or how lousy this place was) and volunteer to clean up after the others." But she knows she is stuck. Connie spends more time "away" with Luciente, trying to develop a way out of her hell. Ultimately Connie makes her plan of action, and the book leaves us with our own questions about Connie's insanity and decisions
     
  • 1986 Joan Slonczewski, A Door Into Ocean.  -- A Door into Ocean is the novel upon which the author's reputation as an important SF writer principally rests. A ground-breaking work both of feminist SF and of world-building hard SF, it concerns the Sharers of Shora, a nation of women on a distant moon in the far future who are pacifists, highly advanced in biological sciences, and who reproduce by parthenogenesis--there are no males--and tells of the conflicts that erupt when a neighboring civilization decides to develop their ocean world, and send in an army.
     
  • 1988 Donna Allegra, A Toast of Babotine.
     
  • 1988 Judy Grahn, Mundane’s World. -- Here is a rare and compelling first novel about five girls' special passage into womanhood. These protagonists, all residents of "Mundane," the city of dreamers, are of?pk from four clans that peacefully coexist: the Snake clan, famous for healing and balance, the Bee clan, of water-bearing women and the keeping of measurements, the Lion clan, of animals, movement, transportation and trading, and the Tortoise clan of farming, provision, distribution and record-keeping. This well-written tale of spiritual transformation from a woman's point of view is composed in a poetic style, capturing the tribal rhythm of rituals and of day-to-day living. A lyrical whimsy informs the narrative: "It was certainly a hum drum society, it was so hum drum, ho hum, dum dedum, dum deedle deedle tweedle dum, humming and drumming, every good time was a clap trap." Though the story is told mainly through the eyes of two characters, Ernesta and Jessi-ma, animals, plants and insects contribute their perspectives: "Spiraling high into the sky for a change of air the fly can see if he is looking that there are four wider streets in the city."
     
  • 1989 Pat Murphy, A City, Not Long After.  --  Half a generation ago, a gesture in the name of peace turned out to spread plague and disaster. In San Francisco, the survivors are heir to a city transformed. It is a haunted, dreaming place peopled with memories, and in a strange way nearly alive itself. And although it is only beginning to recover from near-ultimate disaster, the city is at risk again. An army of power-hungry men are descending on San Francisco. Teenagers Jax and Danny-boy must lead the fight for freedom using the only weapons they have—art, magic, and the soul of the city itself.
     
  • 19     Dorothy Byrant, The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You. -- Art love story, part utopian fantasy, part spiritual fable, The Kin of Ata Are Waiting for You is "a beautiful, symbolic journey of the soul" (Berkeley Monthly). Into the world of the Ata comes a desperate man, running from a fast life of fame and fortune, drugs and crime. He is led by the kin of Ata on a spiritual journey that, sooner or later, we all must take.   

First Sentence:
Bastard! You son of a bitch! Bastard!"" I was almost bored."

  • 1993 Starhawk, The Fifth Sacred Thing. -- Considers two possible futures for America. In ecologically devastated mid-21st-century California, San Francisco is a precariously maintained oasis, its society based on egalitarianism and environmentalism, its deeply spiritual populace possessed of psychic and mystical powers. Drought-plagued southern California suffers under an oppressive, militaristic, technocratic regime that spouts a perverted Christian ideology. After 20 years of uneasy peace, the south's armies mass to invade the north, whose militantly nonviolent denizens must decide how to defend themselves without compromising their pacifism. Starhawk delivers her message with a heavy hand and several cliches: her besieged utopia echoes the liberal politics and ecofeminism of her nonfiction; her dystopia features the overused SF bugbear of Christian fanaticism. However, she creates memorable characters--a young midwife, a broken musician, an old Witch-Woman--and skillfully conveys their emotions in gripping, sometimes harrowing scenes set against vivid backdrops.

 

Looking back over Sultana's Dream…

·        Indian.

·        Reversal of sex-roles.

·        Advances in technology.

·        Educated.

·        Re-distribution of domestic duties.

·        Utilizes mental power vs. physical strength.

·        Degrading for men?

Don’t get me wrong the story was a lovely, and quick read.

Banishing the idea of the “She-man, man haters”

In any utopia it is imperative that equality is in place.  

Objectives:

3c. What literary, cultural, and historical prototypes exist for utopia? Is the utopian impulse universal, or is it unique to western civilization, esp. in its modern phase?

3e. What relations are there between fictional and actual utopian communities? What has been the historical impact of utopian fictions?

 

Questions:

  1. Does society consider the idea of a “Feminist Utopia” more science fiction? Is that why there have been no attempts to create a “Feminist Utopia” in the real world?

 

  1. We see multiple literary prototypes.  Is the sudden interest in composing feminist utopias culturally based?

 

  1. Do Feminist Utopias have a common thread?

 

Web Sites.