Date of Award
1999
Document Type
Thesis
Publication Status
Version of Record
Submission Date
October 2026
Thesis/Dissertation Advisor [Chair]
McGuirk, Carol
Abstract
Throughout The Gate to Women's Country, Sheri S. Tepper covers the patriarchal structures of her imagined society with a veneer of feminism. The novel contains many hallmarks of a feminist utopia, such as a concern for the environment and a distrust of men and technology; yet all are undercut by the traditional structures that she retains of class, military machismo, sexuality, and motherhood. An attempt to read The Gate to Women's Country as "a fortifying tonic" (Simmons 22) leads one instead into the "politics of despair" ("Reconsiderations" 44), as one realizes that Tepper is exaggerating, not resolving, the problematic relations that continue to exist between genders. Too perceptive to be overly optimistic about "surmounting humanity's most dangerous flaws" (Miller 15), Tepper's dystopian novel ultimately acknowledges that the genetic solutions of "Women's Country" are nearly futile. She leaves the struggling utopian and dystopian forces of the novel unresolved and men and women in perpetual conflict.
Extent
89 p.
Recommended Citation
Zitner-Crawford, Thorun., "unguarded gate: Infiltrations of patriarchy in Sheri S. Tepper's "The Gate to Women's Country"" (1999). Electronic Theses and Dissertations 1990 - 1999. 1549.
https://digitalcommons.fau.edu/etd_general_4/1549
Identifier
FADT15720
Comments
Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters|FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection|Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 1999.|Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters