| Charlotte Perkins Gilman (1860-1935) is an important writer, theorist and socialist as well as one of the most important feminists in the first wave of feminist movement. The previous and present scholarship on Gilman, home and abroad, mainly focuses on her short story"The Yellow Wallpaper"and eutopian novel Herland. Her feminist utopias as a system have not won the scholarly attention they deserve. Gilman's utopias function as powerful weapons, targeting the social diseases in the United States at the turn of the nineteenth and twentieth century. At the same time, with the principle of HOPE, she constructs the"not yet"state of the society, advocating CHANGE—be it individual, social or changes of consciousness and relevant actions. The main body of her utopian literature comprises a utopian trilogy, namely, Moving the Mountain, Herland and With Her in Ourland as well as a series of short stories and one novella What Diantha Did. She not only presents positive eutopian world, such as the one in What Diantha Did, Moving the Mountain, and Herland, but also forecasts a dystopian vision. Her utopias are evolutionary, growing from an individual home to a city, a state, a country, and then the whole world, and the unchanging central concern is woman's position and autonomy. Gilman's systematic utopias mark her as a forerunner of feminist utopian literature. Her utopias, born at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, directly mirror the thoughts of the first wave of feminist movement. Meanwhile, her far-sighted perspectives and the nature of utopianism steer the direction of the latter waves of feminist movement and shed light on today's feminist struggle against sexism and patriarchism. Gilman has inherited the utopian tradition created by Thomas More; and more importantly, she transcends the static perfection of utopian literature, and influences the revival of feminist utopias in the 1970s and 1980s, which makes her a deserving bearer of the title"forerunner"in feminist utopian literature.This dissertation explores the characteristics of Gilman's utopias and discusses how, under the HOPE principle, Gilman's deconstruction and construction through utopia creation function as a personal and social healer. The first part of the dissertation, Introduction, starts with a brief back glance of development of American utopian literature and feminist utopias, together with a summary of the previous scholarship on Gilman home and abroad. The first chapter introduces Gilman's utopian works in the personal and social context and explores the forerunning characteristics in her utopian narratives and themes. The following two chapters are the key parts of this dissertation, exploring the most significant aspects of Gilman's feminist utopian perspectives, clarifying Gilman's construction based on the critique of the existing social order. Chapter Two discusses Gilman's construction of"home utopia"in three aspects, namely, clothing, architecture and environment. Chapter Three explores Gilman's"utopia of motherhood". To Gilman, mothers are builders of home and society, yet the institutionalized motherhood in patriarchal society constructs"mother's mystique"in the disguise of compliments of them. Only when this mystique is revealed can mothers obtain choices and achieve triumph—materializing a utopia of motherhood through literary imagination.Based on the argument above, my conclusion is that Charlotte Perkins Gilman constructs a feminist dwelling place through critique of the social oppression of women in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and her utopian sociological dream helps heal her personal trauma as well. Though her construction of home utopia and motherhood utopia is tainted with racial prejudices and eugenic ideas, we should recognize her contribution to the feminist utopian literature and feminist movement.
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