Patrick Graham
29 March 2019

Feminists Make Utopian Fiction Relevant Again

          In my midterm, I wrote about the specific narrative techniques that are common in utopian fiction. When I started research for this post, I planned to continue that topic. However, as it often does, my research led me in a different direction. As a searched for more information about narration in utopian works, I learned that such techniques became so common, even redundant, that the genre lost its value. Then, I learned about the techniques that certain female authors of utopian fiction use and how that has given the genre a new life.

Utopian narratives have taken many forms and styles through the years, but their goal—to cultivate ideas for societal progress—remains the same. Some of the earliest utopian narratives told stories of fanciful times and lands of pleasure. These stories offered readers an escape from their less than ideal lives (Ženko 69). While their purpose may have been to entertain, their ideal society fantasies introduced the idea of criticizing our own societies. This idea grew with time, and so did the utopian genre. The next stage of utopian evolution was when utopian narratives aimed to put forth prescriptive ideas of how people can make their societies better (Ženko 71). This type of narrative is known as the “political utopia,” as its primary theme deals with how groups of people are governed. As this trend continued, utopian narratives got more satirical and hence more symbolic in (Ženko 71). Earlier utopian works that intended to inform and instruct their readers depicted societies of realistic people and conditions. In the later satirical ones, the images, characters and conditions were exaggerated. The reason for writing this way was “not to give a proper answer…but to open space for a discussion and ultimately to enable a positive…change” (Ženko 71–72). The outrageous nature of the satirical utopian narratives aimed to catch the readers’ attention and challenge their views on the status quo.

          Sadly, utopian narratives did not keep evolving at such an explosive pace. On the contrary, they stagnated. Scholar Gorman Beauchamp argues that, today, “The narrative mode of the utopists…[has become] remarkably constant” (Beauchamp 88). In other words, despite the genre’s variety mentioned earlier, all utopian narratives take the same story structure and characterization. Beauchamp explains this constancy: utopian stories “are…reduced to guided tours of paradise” (Beauchamp 95). After studying various titles of utopian fiction, Beauchamp concluded that they all tell the story of a person visiting an ideal society and being shown around it by a resident of that society. This bores the reader; it lacks the intrigue and excitement of a novel. Beauchamp argues that those elements of the novel are what make readers open to new ideas. So, “the dilemma of utopian narration…[is] that the medium works against the message” (Beauchamp 87). Utopian narratives have become so repetitive and dry that they can no longer effectively contribute to the conversation of ideas. Like a car that has run its wheels off, the genre can no longer perform its original function.

          In recent decades, the genre of utopian fiction came out of stagnation through the works of female authors who use its conventions in creative ways to promote feminist ideas. While keeping the same form and structure of the utopian narrative, these authors make changes within the genre. For instance, in an analysis of Ursula K. LeGuin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, scholar Rebecca Adams noticed that LeGuin used an image of milk to elaborate a creation myth, while many other utopian authors have used images of blood. Le Guin’s choice “suggests that the…regeneration of culture…might be re-visioned not as a violent cycle of life…rising out of death, but [as] the gradual and sustained development of a child who receives life from its mother’s life” (Adams 38). Here, LeGuin has used a trope of literature—imagery and symbolism—in an original way to share her ideas through her utopian narrative. It is a small but effective change. In other instances, female authors—LeGuin included—have made use of the conventions of other genres in their utopian narratives to augment their particular agendas. After much study, scholar Virginia Tiger noticed that “feminists and feminocentric novelists…have adopted the fantastical mode…because it permits…fluid rather than static gender relations” (Tiger). Tiger suggests that a common goal among these authors was to comment on relations between the male and female genders in society. These authors were able to do that in their works by incorporating fantasy, which gives any author carte blanche over their fictitious societies. So, while adhering to the rigid structure of utopia while tweaking its components, women have succeeded in bringing relevancy back to the genre.

          Utopian fiction was the genre of choice in the literature of ideas for many years. This popularity led to a high volume of work in the genre but a decline in its variety and efficacy. It was not until women started contributing to it—in unique ways and from their unique points of views—that it started to regain traction. What is true for utopian narratives is also true in life: people can make changes to outdated, outmoded systems by operating from within them.

Works Cited

Adams, Rebecca. “Narrative Voice and Unimaginability of the Utopian ‘Feminine’ in Le Guin’s The Left        Hand of Darkness and ‘The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas.’” Utopian Studies. 2.1/2   (1991):       35–44. Art & Architecture Source. Web.

Beauchamp, Gorman. “The Medium Against the Message: The Dilemma of Utopian Narration.” Humanitas (Journal of the National Humanities Institute). 30.1–2 (2017): 86–97. Philosophers    Index with Full Text. Web.

Tiger, Virginia. “‘The Words Had Been Right and Necessary:’ Doris Lessing’s Transformations of Utopian  and Dystopian Modalities in The Marriages between Zones Three, Four and Five.” Style. 27   (1993): 63–80. EBSCOHost. Web.

Ženko, Ernest. “Mapping the Unmappable: Dichotomies of Utopianism.” Filozofski Vestnik. 38:1 (2017):    67–87. Philosophers Index with Full Text. Web.