On “Female Public Sphere” In Charlotte Gilman’s Utopian Trilogy

As a representative of the first wave of the feminist movement in the United States,Charlotte Gilman(1860-1935)devoted her life to the awakening of females’self-awareness,and wrote such literary works as In This Our World(1893),The Yellow Wallpaper(1890),and What Diantha Did(1909),aiming to reshape the image of females,build females’ homeland and realize females’ self-value,among which the utopian trilogy-Moving the Mountain(1911),Herland(1915)and With Her in Ourland(1916)stands out.Drawing on Simone de Beauvoir’s(1908-1986)views on woman in The Second Sex(1949)and Jürgen Habermas’(1929-)concept of public sphere in Strukturwandel der (?)ffentlichkeit(1962),this thesis adopts the methodologies of text close reading and cultural analysis,attempting to propose a new concept of "Female Public Sphere"(simplified as FPS),and excavate the three dimensions of Gilman’s utopian trilogy,from which the process of transformation of FPS is sorted out."Female public sphere" is derived from Simone de Beauvoir’s view on woman and Jürgen Habermas’ concept of public sphere.It refers to an open and free sphere,with the features of multidimensional,transformative,and constructive,in which the female is subject.FPS in Gilman’s utopian trilogy consists of three main dimensions,namely the career sphere,the communication sphere and the ethic sphere.Under the effects of the FPS,females awaken and realize their self-value,thus contributing to the structural transformation and functional transformation of FPS.The structural transformation and functional transformations are mutually reinforcing and contribute to the construction of female utopias.It is indicated that the research of FPS establishes links between literary texts and the real world.It deepens readers’ thinking about gender imbalance by constructing female utopias in which people live in harmony with each other,with society and with nature.The thesis also reveals the value of FPS,which provides a path to reconstructing females’ identity,enhancing their social status and achieving their self-transcendence.