A Foucauldian approach to second-wave American feminist utopian/dystopian fiction

The present study is an attempt to explore the power relations between men and women. Inequality in sharing power between sexes has become one of the prominent topics throughout history. Unbalanced power distribution between sexes has driven women to revolt against the system in different periods. French philosopher, theorist, and historian Michel Foucault examines power relations in his 1975 work Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison and in the first volume of 1976 book The History of Sexuality. In his works, Foucault claims that authorities aim to have competent and docile bodies by keeping the subjects under control and surveillance. Foucault's theory suggests that with the help of institutions such as homes, schools, hospitals, and prisons, power structures target individuals' bodies in order to reconstruct them in accordance with society's norms and by applying certain disciplinary techniques. Apart from being restrictive for individuals, Foucault further argues that power also has an emancipative feature in that power is not possessed, but it is exercised with different strategies. Therefore, with the help of resistances, power can become productive for individuals who are oppressed. Accordingly, in this thesis, Joanna Russ's The Female Man (1975) and Marge Piercy's Woman on the Edge of Time (1976) are examined through utilizing Michel Foucault's theory of power as well as considering the utopian and dystopian context. The Female Man and Woman on the Edge of Time comply with Foucault's theory of power. Both novels depict how women are restricted under authoritative powers and prove that women can manage to alter power relations and emancipate themselves from oppression by revolting against the system.