ABSTRACT
Utopia would appear to be incompatible with postmodernism. Its universalism contradicts postmodern pluralism. Enlightenment utopianism in particular, echoing the confident, progress-oriented strains of the Age of Reason. With a look at literary texts, Angelika Bammer argues that women's utopianism has indeed remained a viable political and intellectual force even in a postmodern age. Feminist writing in the 1970s, she claims, was sustained by utopian thought even when utopia was declared dead. In particular, Bammer's thesis can be applied to Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's novel The New Clarissa, published in 1767 as a response to Samuel Richardson's acclaimed Clarissa, which appeared in London in 1747-48. Le Magasin des enfans was succeeded by Le Magasin des adolescents, Instructions pour les jeunes dames, and Les Americaines. Leprince de Beaumont's text, like Gelbart's biography, is a 'partial vision' in Angelika Bammer's sense. Leprince de Beaumont recognizes women's predicament.
