Date of Award
12-1998
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy
Department
Sociology
First Advisor
Dr. Ronald C. Kramer
Second Advisor
Dr. Paula Brush
Third Advisor
Dr. Gwen Raaberg
Abstract
Literary studies meets up with sociology as feminist utopian fiction Is examined for what sociologist Dorothy Smith (1990) labels normal narrative and counter-narrative articulations of gendered structures of power. The method of analytical Induction Is used both In the choosing of the four novels for study and the resulting textual analysis. Ursula Le Guln's The dispossessed (1974), Marge Plercy's Woman on the edge of time (1976), Suzy McKee Chamas's Motherllnes (1978), and Sally Miller Gearhart's The wandereround (1979) are examined for their constructions of dystopian normal narratives, as well as for their reconstructions of subversive utopian counter-narratives, both articulating gendered structures of power. Four key structural categories were found to be the fictional sites for articulations of gendered power relations: (1) sexuality, (2) gender, (3) reproduction and childrearing, and (4) violence. Collectively, these four structural categories can be classified as sexual politics.
Access Setting
Dissertation-Open Access
Recommended Citation
Boyers, Jennifer Sue, "Sexual Politics and Subversion: Feminist Utopia as Praxis" (1998). Dissertations. 1544.
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/1544
Included in
Comparative Literature Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, Gender and Sexuality Commons