Feminist Utopia Construction -Tentative Analysis On The Female Utopian World In Munro’s Runaway

Within the theoretical framework of utopianism, feminism and feminist utopia, this thesis, by taking the eight short stories in Runaway as its discourse, analyzes and discusses Alice Munro’s deconstruction of duality in patriarchy, and point out the drawbacks that in traditional utopia literature, women are still depend on men who are the dominant power of the family. And this is the way that she constructs her feminist utopia and explores into the lives of the female.Utopia constructions could be traced back to the 6th century B.C., and the great Greek philosopher, Plato, creates The Republic in the form of dialogues, depicting an ideal world in his eyes. However, in his utopia, women have conspicuously low status and they could be even shared by men. Tomas More’s Utopia paved the way for utopia literature. But in More’s work, women are still bullied by men both physically and mentally. If women lose virginity before marriage, they will be severely punished. And if they could not bear a child, they will be "public wives." In other utopia works written by men, women usually live painfully without any rights or freedom.The early feminists hold that the society is built upon patriarchy with the male as the center. They advocate that female’s attachment status should be changed so as to achieve absolute equality. Those early feminists somewhat go to extremes to ask for absolute equality. Because of the difference in nature biologically and psychologically, this kind of absolute equality will bring even more problems. Therefore, feminist utopia aims at constructing a society in which women could live a life at their own will with the freedom of choices and without the shackles from parents, children or husbands.Based on intensive reading and exhaustive textual analysis, this thesis illustrates the feminist utopia constructed by Alice Munro through eight short stories in Runaway. Women have to step into the real world and play their roles as daughters, wives and mothers, while women should also have their own independent lives. They do not belong to anybody and they have right and freedom to choose. When they encounter love and marriage, women are able to make decisions for themselves, shoulder responsibility and accept the consequences. When it comes to sex, if women think it is worthwhile, they should be bold enough to break the conventional rules.Through different female characters and their different ways to handle the dilemma, Munro deconstructs the duality of patriarchy and constructs a feminist Utopia in which women could enjoy freedom and happiness. According to Munro, for achieving that goal, women should fight for themselves instead of blaming men and the society for what they are suffering.