Georgia-May Cox

Hello! My name is Georgia-may Cox and I am a BA English student. The project I have chosen to present is the short-story I wrote for the Utopias and Dystopias module, titled The Sanctuary. I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this story alongside my dissertation, as it has allowed me to express my thoughts and ideas through a more creative mode.

I chose to base my work on Charlotte Perkins Gilman's novel Herland, as I wanted to try and rework Gilman's ideas of an all female Utopia into something entirely different and more sinister. I also wanted my story to build upon Thomas More's notion that a perfect world can never exist, as there will always be greed and sin. I was also inspired by a further two texts which I was introduced to through the module: Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale. Following the plot outline of both novels, my short-story begins with the description of a Utopian society, but ends with the mirage of perfection being shattered.

Perfection doesn't exist! Stop looking for it. Because you will never find it.