the problematics of motherhood in twentieth century women's fiction

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Seeing childbearing as a barrler to self-fulfilment rather
than as a vehicle for it, advocates of reproductive
technology urge women to relinquish their reproductive
functions and take recourse to artificial techniques of
reproduction. The ongoing debate between biological and
technological motherhood has resulted in varlous theoretical
and fictional works contemplating the feasibility of
artificial techniques of reprod'~ct1on. Thls chapter studies
the ideological treatment of technological motherhood
promoted by Hi-tech reproductive strategies and its relation
to feminine/femlnlst motherhood in three utopias/dystopias,
namely, CharloLte Perklns Gllnan's Herland. Marge Plercy's
Woman On The Edge of Time and Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale.
Gilman's utop~a excludes men from the process of
reproduction by attributing to its women inhabitants a
vlrgin - blrth capacity, or the power of parthenogenetic
-.eproductzon. Piercy's utopia, Mattapoisett, views
technological reproduction as the means of liberating women
and along wlth 1t elimlnating sexlsm, racism and classlsm
Atwood, on the ccntrary, staunchly denounces reproductive
technology in her dystopla, Gilead, underscoring that such
technologies will only enslave women further. Herland and
Women On The Edge of Time attempt to make 'unnatural' means
of reproduction sound plausible, viewing them in a posltive
light, whereas The Handamid's Tale 1s a strong critlque of
these techniques.