| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立臺灣大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 87 === Feminist utopia can be seen as a feminist rebuttal to utopian tradition. While the canonical utopia has been regarded as "all but dead" in the twentieth century, feminist ideology has rejuvenated the genre and made utopia come alive.
Gender distinction, the rationale of patriarchy, is the first target for scrutiny in feminist utopian novels. Since feminism is itself a heterogeneous discourse, feminist utopists depict diverse ideal futures, wherein are presented not only a powerful critique of patriarchal oppression on women, but also various gender modes closely related to the goals of women's movement. Though varied in approaches and experiments, feminist utopian writers have a shared ambition to construct a utopia where woman can be freed from sexual hierarchy, and live as an equal to man.
Feminist utopists have challenged not only the gender politics in conventional utopias, but also their utopian vision and narrative in general. The focus of feminist utopists has shifted from efficient government systems to human relationships and personalities. People in feminist utopias are portrayed as prone to value process and cooperation rather than result and competition as endorsed in male utopias. Feminist eulogy of cultural diversity is further reinforced by the emphasis on the relationship between humanity and nature. In revolt against human exploitation of nature for endless economic growth and material affluence, feminist utopian writers usually advocate the values of scarcity and ecology. Not meant to regress to pre-civilization tribalism, such feminist utopias are portrayed as having high technology, but in a limited use. Feminist utopists explore new feminist behavioral modes rather than any technological transformation in the novel. As to narrative strategy, feminist utopian writers employ a number of postmodern ideas and uphold the active role of the reader by using the strategies of multiple narrators, non-linear narrative, and self-reflexive commentary on the textual operations. The narrative tradition of realism is thoroughly subverted.
As a major feminist utopian writer, Ursula K. Le Guin has not only laid bare gender as a social construct in her utopian novels, but also helped modify the canonical tradition of utopia. In this paper, I will focus on Le Guin's three chief utopian novels-The Left Hand of Darkness (1969), The Dispossessed (1974) and Always Coming Home (1985). These three novels of Le Guin's represent different phases in Le Guin's treatment of gender politics, utopian vision and narrative strategy and will be respectively discussed in three chapters. Through a study of Le Guin's three novels, I attempt to show that contemporary feminist utopias have opened a broad utopian horizon of possibilities as a point of departure to construct our futures.
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