In this paper, the author intends to parallelize Mark Twain＇s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur＇s Court with Foucault＇s theorizations about heterotopia, or heterotopology. For Foucault, heterotopia is a paradox b...In this paper, the author intends to parallelize Mark Twain＇s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur＇s Court with Foucault＇s theorizations about heterotopia, or heterotopology. For Foucault, heterotopia is a paradox because it is paces that are both real and placeless. Twain＇s novel is a time travel story, which juxtaposes the temporalities of the 6th and 19th centuries. In the story, Hank, the hero, is allowed access to Camelot, King Arthur＇s court. Above all, he has introduced to it quite a few elements of modem technology and civilization. So far Twain seems to have complied with Foucault＇s heterotopology. That is, there is a textual heterotopia created in his novel. However, the last principle of Foucault＇s heterotopology states that a heterotopia can be comparable to a utopia because of its contrastive function. A typical time travel story has the same contrastive function as well. That is, in either case there should be a utopia, a dystopia, or a mixture of them. However, Twain＇s novel fails to contrast the 6th century with the 19th century simply because the heterotopia Hank has created leaps from a utopia to a dystopia. It is at this point where Twain has deviated from heterotopology. The shifting nature of this heterotopia not only disables its contrastive mechanism but also jeopardizes its thematic clarity. Most of all, it indicates that Twain has a considerably ambivalent attitude towards the industrial civilization, and that as a consequence, he is indecisive about the direction of this novel.展开更多
文摘In this paper, the author intends to parallelize Mark Twain＇s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur＇s Court with Foucault＇s theorizations about heterotopia, or heterotopology. For Foucault, heterotopia is a paradox because it is paces that are both real and placeless. Twain＇s novel is a time travel story, which juxtaposes the temporalities of the 6th and 19th centuries. In the story, Hank, the hero, is allowed access to Camelot, King Arthur＇s court. Above all, he has introduced to it quite a few elements of modem technology and civilization. So far Twain seems to have complied with Foucault＇s heterotopology. That is, there is a textual heterotopia created in his novel. However, the last principle of Foucault＇s heterotopology states that a heterotopia can be comparable to a utopia because of its contrastive function. A typical time travel story has the same contrastive function as well. That is, in either case there should be a utopia, a dystopia, or a mixture of them. However, Twain＇s novel fails to contrast the 6th century with the 19th century simply because the heterotopia Hank has created leaps from a utopia to a dystopia. It is at this point where Twain has deviated from heterotopology. The shifting nature of this heterotopia not only disables its contrastive mechanism but also jeopardizes its thematic clarity. Most of all, it indicates that Twain has a considerably ambivalent attitude towards the industrial civilization, and that as a consequence, he is indecisive about the direction of this novel.
