Greenway Judy (2002) 'No Place For Women? Anti Utopianism and the Utopian Politics of the 1890's'

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'No Place For Women? Anti Utopianism and the Utopian Politics of the 1890's'

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CONTRIBUTORS:

Author:

Greenway Judy (University of East London)

JOURNAL:

Geografisker Annaler B , 84 B(3-4), 201 - 209.

YEAR:

2002

PUB TYPE:

Journal Article

SUBJECT(S):

fictional and non- fictional representations of utopia and utopianism; utopianism and gendered space; anti-utopianism; women, anarchism and utopian socialism.

DISCIPLINE:

Women's Studies

HTTP:

http://www.judygreenway.org.uk/noplace/noplace.html

LANGUAGE:

English

PUB ID:

103-424-292 (Last edited on 2010/05/17 11:56:00 GMT-6)

SPONSOR(S):

ABSTRACT:
The word utopia can mean both good place and no place, and the common-sense meaning of 'utopian' is unrealistic. This article argues that common-sense assumptions of the impossibility of utopia are ideological, and in part constructed by the way experiments in utopian living have been represented. Historical accounts suggest utopias are doomed to inevitable failure. In fiction and autobiography, committed participants in such experiments as well as outside observers use narrative structures which distance utopian spaces from 'real life'. Using historical research and textual analysis, this argument is illustrated by discussing several women involved in utopian politics in 1890s England. Four of them, Helen and Olivia Rossetti, Edith Lees, and Gertrude Dix later wrote novels which re-created but also distanced their experiences. This distancing is partly a function of gender: for them utopia was no place for real women. The paper analyses the construction of utopian spaces in their novels, particularly the gendered relationship between domestic and political space. Narrative structure, imagery and humour are all used to all undermine a sense of the possibilities of utopian living. These fictionalised accounts are compared with Nellie Shaw’s more positive non-fiction account of life in the utopian community Whiteway. Although writing as a committed utopian, she, too, creates an account that distances readers. The critical analysis of such representations can begin to challenge anti-utopianism.

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