Women and Ideal Space: Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Herland

Abstract

The present paper endeavors to read Herland as a search for ideal space for women. After Charlotte Perkins Gilman explores the pathological state of private space in “The Yellow Wallpaper”, she imagines a liberating counterpart in Herland. Here, women are no longer restricted to private space but work for the state, supported by the socialization of domestic labor. When women’s energy is invested in the social arena, the efficiency of society as a whole is heightened, and results in an apparently beautiful utopia that is nearly pastoral. However Gilman does not succeed in representing the ideal space in Herland. Surrounding the issue of childbirth, it represents the typical bio-politics of the nineteenth century as discussed by Michel Foucault. Futhermore, Herlanders exist only as mere elements of what Emmanuel Levinas calls totality not as individuals. The ending with two protagonists’ journey implies that Gilman unwittingly accepts the limitations of her utopia.