Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland and the Tradition of the Scientific Utopia
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6011685 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew G Christensen (0000-0003-1667-3720, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2017 |
| Volume | 28 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 286-304 |
| Publication date | 2017-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Utopian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1045-991X • E-ISSN: 2154-9648 |
| Publisher | The Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.5325/utopianstudies.28.2.0286 |
| OpenAlex | W2738505207 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 11 |
This article considers Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 1915 novel Herland in the larger utopian tradition and argues that it can be classified as a scientific utopia, in the tradition of Bacon's New Atlantis. Herland is frequently mischaracterized as “Arcadian” and “pastoral.” In reality, the novel presents an advanced industrialized society that uses radical environmental engineering. The article challenges a number of critical readings from ecofeminism and feminist science studies in characterizing the novel, which has been abundantly studied in terms of gender politics but far less so in terms of the scientific utopia. Also covered are the novel's engagements with the population principle and eugenics—controversial issues in the novel's time and in our own but familiar territory in the utopian tradition. Though the Herlanders' mastery of their environment and population is impressive on one level, on another it is disconcerting, and the novel, from our point of view, can be said to have a place in another tradition—the technological dystopia. Last, brief consideration is given to the question of whether science can be a legitimate basis of utopia and what Herland contributes to this ongoing debate
Aesthetics · Art history · Dystopia · Ecofeminism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Eugenics · Political science · Politics · Population · Social science · Sociology · Utopia · American Environmental and Regional History · Demography · Environmental, Ecological, and Cultural Studies · History · History of Science and Natural History · Law · Philosophy
Feminism and the Mastery of Nature
Nineteen Eighty-Four
The Open Society and Its Enemies
Counterfactual Thinking - Counterfactual Writing
An Essay on the Principle of Population, as it Affects the Future Improvement of Society, with Remarks on the Speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and Other Writers
The Domination of Nature
Science in Utopia
Feminism, Utopia, and Narrative
Ecological Feminism and Ecosystem Ecology
The Social Inventor
Writing Feminist Genealogy
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,63 |
| Citation span | 2018 - 2026 (9) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |