The Bellipotent as Heterotopia, Total Institution, and Colony: Billy Budd and Other Spaces in Melville's Mediterranean

French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault first defined the con-cept of "Heterotopias" in his 1967 lecture titled "Des Espaces Autres"("Of Other Spaces"). Unlike utopias, heterotopias are real places thatare different from all the sites that they reflect, and the...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor: Andrés González, Rodrigo
Formato: artículo
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:España
Recursos:Varias* (Consorci de Biblioteques Universitáries de Catalunya, Centre de Serveis Científics i Acadèmics de Catalunya)
Repositorio:Recercat. Dipósit de la Recerca de Catalunya
OAI Identifier:oai:recercat.cat:2445/173129
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/173129
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Melville, Herman, 1819-1891
Descrição
Resumo:French philosopher and historian Michel Foucault first defined the con-cept of "Heterotopias" in his 1967 lecture titled "Des Espaces Autres"("Of Other Spaces"). Unlike utopias, heterotopias are real places thatare different from all the sites that they reflect, and they represent a sort ofsimultaneously mythic and real contestation of the space in which we live.Michel Foucault famously concluded that the best example of a heterotopiais a boat: "The ship is the heterotopia par excellence," poetically adding:"In civilizations without boats, dreams dry up, espionage takes the place ofadventure, and the police take the place of pirates." InBilly Budd, Sailor,Melville gives us theBellipotent, the epitome of a negative heterotopia, wheredreams dry up we say goodbye to theRights of Man espionage takes theplace of adventure, and anxiety is produced although not by pirates but bythe police. This ship is a heterotopia not of illusion but of crisis, not ofcompensation but of deviation. This heterotopia is not a great reserve of theimagination but another real space.