Where is Herland in A Modern Utopia: An Ecocritical Reading of the Two Utopias

Both H. G. Wells (1866-1946) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) published their utopias respectively A Modern Utopia (1905) and Herland (1915) within the early decades of the twentieth century, when unprecedented attention was paid to technological improvements and domination over nature. From the perspective of Ecofeminism, there is a parallel between the domination of men over women and a more basic domination of man over nature. Karen J. Warren (1947), a contemporary ecofeminist contends that five oppressive conceptual frameworks of hierarchy, value-dualism, power over the other, privilege and logic of domination are the cause of all later isms including sexism, racism, and classicism. They work hand in hand, strengthen one another, and are interlinked. The aim of this study is to trace the mentioned features in the two utopias so as to demonstrate up to what extent the two utopian writers could disentangle their ideal cities from the dominant features of their modern societies and hence create a utopia that is close to the standards of ecocriticism. The focus of this study is specifically on the social implication of Darwin s scientific theory from the perspective of ecofeminism and the patriarchal division of spheres into Private and Public as they are represented in the two utopias.

کلیدواژه ها:

Utopia. Hierarchy ، Value-dualism ، Domination ، Privilege