The "Bi-Sexual Race" : Mediating Masculine and Feminine Discourses in Charlotte Perkins Gilman's Herland, With Her in Ourland, and Beyond

J. Hudson

This study uses the French feminist theory of écriture féminine ("feminine writing") to analyze American feminist intellectual Charlotte Perkins Gilman's successful mediation of masculine and feminine discourses in her utopian novel Herland (1915) and its sequel With Her in Ourland (1916). Van, the male narrator of this series, combines masculine and feminine discourses to produce a "bi-sexual" mode that is fluid, multiple, and blurs boundaries. In achieving écriture féminine, Van works toward Gilman's vision of a "bi-sexual race" where women and men evolve together as autonomous subjects.[Copies are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Center. The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580, USA]