Gendering Utopia: A Feminist Literary Analysis of Marge Piercy?s Woman on the Edge of Time

In Woman on the Edge of Time, Marge Piercy offers a utopian revisioning of a society in which gender, mothering, madness and social organization are all radically reconstructed. By means of a feminist literary analysis of the ways in which the text revisions some of the most urgent gendered challenges that continue to plague contemporary societies, this article seeks to shed light on the utopian future that feminist theorists and activists continue to strive towards. The novel represents the experiences of Connie, a Mexican American woman who periodically escapes from her oppressive existence in contemporary American society by entering the alternative, utopian society of Mattapoisett. Piercy does not simply accept the traditional view of man and woman, individual and community, heterosexual and homosexual, mad and sane as polar opposites. Rather, in her construction of utopia, she sees them as constitutive elements of a harmonious whole. In her utopia, it becomes clear that patriarchy does not only oppress women and the reader sees male characters basking in the joy of parenting and children flourishing in communal caregiving environments. Through her literary vision of a new type of society, Piercy suggests that a reconfiguration of gender can benefit all members of such a new, utopian society.