Ecofeminism and Gilman’s Herland: a Gaardian approach
Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) is an eminent American philosopher, lecturer, social critic, and known for her feminist utopian novel, Herland (1998). The novel is analysed based on Greta Gaard’s theory of ecofeminism that cites patriarchal religion, Darwin’s human evolutionary development, a...
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2016
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10690/1/10425-39655-1-PB.pdf http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10690/ http://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/807 |
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| Summary: | Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) is an eminent American philosopher, lecturer, social critic, and known
for her feminist utopian novel, Herland (1998). The novel is analysed based on Greta Gaard’s theory of
ecofeminism that cites patriarchal religion, Darwin’s human evolutionary development, and the metaphorical
or ideological explanations as the sources of the separation of culture from nature that lead to the self/other
dualism. This study is an attempt to reject the self/other, man/woman and culture/nature dualisms of patriarchal
thought, and show how women and nature are liberated from oppression. Gaard has shown that the claim for
the superiority, separation, and domination of the self is based on the difference between self and other, where
all things associated with self are privileged, and all things described as other are devalued. Gaard uses this
self/other dualism to explain the patriarchal domination pertaining the supposed relationship between women
and nature, since both are configured as ‘other’ and are separated from self associated with men and culture.
She explains that patriarchal thought emphasises the differentiation of ‘self’ from ‘other’ and the connection of
women and nature to justify the domination of both women and nature. This study will explore how Gilman
declines the root cause of dualisms of culture/nature and man/woman as lying in the social construction of
patriarchal religion and Darwin’s human evolutionary development through depicting a utopian maternal
world. She undermines the paternal attitudes that are based on competition to possess and dominate both
women and nature, and she makes the connections among men, women, and nature through education of the
children in open fields to create the interconnections between nature and culture and denounce the oppression
of these categories. |
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