''Mizora'' is a

feminist science fiction Feminist science fiction is a subgenre of science fiction (abbreviated "SF") focused on such feminist themes as: gender inequality, sexuality, race, economics, reproduction, and environment. Feminist SF is political because of its tendency to ...

utopian novel Utopian and dystopian fiction are subgenres of speculative fiction that explore extreme forms of social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality ...

by Mary E. Bradley Lane, first published in 1880–81, when it was serialized in the ''Cincinnati Commercial'' newspaper. It appeared in book form in 1890. ''Mizora'' is "the first portrait of an all-female, self-sufficient society," and "the first feminist technological Utopia." The book's full title is ''Mizora: A Prophecy: A Mss. Found Among the Private Papers of Princess Vera Zarovitch: Being a True and Faithful Account of her Journey to the Interior of the Earth, with a Careful Description of the Country and its Inhabitants, their Customs, Manners, and Government.''

Publication history and influences

''Mizora'' was part of the wave of

utopian and dystopian fiction Utopian and dystopian fiction are subgenres of speculative fiction that explore extreme forms of social and political structures. Utopian fiction portrays a setting that agrees with the author's ethos, having various attributes of another reality ...

that was published in the later decades of the nineteenth century. The novel is "the second known feminist utopian novel written by a woman," afte
''Man's Rights''
(1870) by

Annie Denton Cridge Annie Denton Cridge (1825–1875) was a UK-born American spiritualist, political reformer, lecturer, and writer. Cridge had great interest in women's rights, politics, and spiritualism. She helped produce a radical newspaper ''The Vanguard''. The u ...

. The concept of an all-female society dates back at least to the

Amazons The Amazons (Ancient Greek: ', singular '; in Latin ', ') were a people in Greek mythology, portrayed in a number of ancient epic poems and legends, such as the Labours of Hercules, Labours of Heracles, the ''Argonautica'' and the ''Iliad''. ...

of ancient

Greek mythology Greek mythology is the body of myths originally told by the Ancient Greece, ancient Greeks, and a genre of ancient Greek folklore, today absorbed alongside Roman mythology into the broader designation of classical mythology. These stories conc ...

— though the Amazons still needed men for procreation. In Lane's ''Mizora'', reproduction is by

parthenogenesis Parthenogenesis (; from the Greek + ) is a natural form of asexual reproduction in which the embryo develops directly from an egg without need for fertilization. In animals, parthenogenesis means the development of an embryo from an unfertiliz ...

. ''Mizora'' also belongs to the class of hollow Earth literature. The second edition of ''Mizora'' appeared in 1975, and it was re-released in 1999 by the

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press (UNP) was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the University of Ne ...

. Little is known of the author; Mrs. Lane did not want her husband to find out she was writing about the world being better off without men.

Plot synopsis

The book depicts an all-female "utopia" existing within the Earth. The Mizorans practice

eugenics Eugenics is a set of largely discredited beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter the frequency of various human phenotypes by inhibiting the fer ...

; all of them are blonde "Aryans," who disdain people of darker skin. Their society is composed of blonde women and daughters. In its ancient history, the land was ruled by a military general elected president (a version of

Ulysses Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was the 18th president of the United States, serving from 1869 to 1877. In 1865, as commanding general, Grant led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War ...

). When the general ran for a third term (as Grant was urged to do in 1880), the society of Mizora descended into chaos. Eventually a new all-female social order arose in Mizora. The last men were "eliminated" — though it is not clear whether they were overtly killed or left to die out. It is said that men are more forgotten than hated. The first-person narrator, Vera Zarovitch, is a young political fugitive who has fallen foul of the Czarist regime and been sentenced to exile in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

. She escapes northward into the Arctic, where her kayak is swept over a vast waterfall to Mizora. She spends fifteen years there, learning the ways of the culture; at the end of that time she longs to return to her husband and child, and teach her own society what she has learned. Although Vera ultimately manages to return to her own society, her husband and son are dead, and a Mizoran friend also dies. Vera is left only with the hope that future generations will be better off, "through the promises of universal education and the deeply questionable practice of eugenics". As a utopian novel, the book devotes some time to the futuristic technology such as "videophones." The Mizorans can make rain by discharging electricity into the air. Though Mizora has no domestic animals, its women eat chemically prepared artificial meat — an innovation that is only under development in the early twenty-first century.

Social commentary and legacies

The novel makes frequent commentary on gender and race. Lane plays with the customs and conventions of her own society, as utopian writers normally do. In Mizora, a

narrow waist Narrow may refer to: * The Narrow, rock band from South Africa * Narrow banking, proposed banking system that would eliminate bank runs and the need for a deposit insurance * Narrow-gauge railway, a railway that has a track gauge narrower than the ...

is considered a "disgusting deformity" — reversing the preference of Lane's own time for tightly-corseted women. It also refers to political repression in contemporary Russia, and the suppression of the Polish revolt of 1863. Lane's book anticipates some of the features of

Charlotte Perkins Gilman Charlotte Anna Perkins Gilman (; née Perkins; July 3, 1860 – August 17, 1935), also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, was an American humanist, novelist, writer, lecturer, early sociologist, advocate for social reform ...

's famous '' Herland'' by three decades. It was closely followed by other feminist utopian works, Mrs. George Corbett's '' New Amazonia: A Foretaste of the Future'' (1889), and '' Unveiling a Parallel'' (1893) by collaborators Alice Ilgenfritz Jones and Ella Merchant. Simultaneously, some male utopian writers published works that involve feminist issues and questions of gender roles; Charles Bellamy's ''An Experiment in Marriage'' (1889) and Linn Boyd Porter's ''Speaking of Ellen'' (1890) are examples.

References

External links

''Mizora: A Prophecy. A MSS. Found Among the Private Papers of the Princess Vera Zarovitch.''
by Mary Bradley Lane. New York: G. W. Dillingham, 1890, a
Project Gutenberg
*

* {{Feminist science fiction Feminist utopian novels 1881 American novels 1881 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Novels set in the Arctic Fiction about the Hollow Earth Novels set in subterranea Feminist science fiction novels

Publication history and influences

Plot synopsis

Social commentary and legacies

See also

References

External links