The world is connected by all kinds of relations。 On such bases, Foucault believes that there is a sort of mixed, joint experience between utopias, these quite other sites, and these heterotopias。 He elaborates on the conception of heterotopias by the example of a mirror, and puts forward six principles of heterotopology。

In a nutshell, the heterotopias theory provides a novel spatial perspective for people to observe and rethink the world。

2。2 Studies on Analyzing Heterotopias in Literary Works

It is well acknowledged that literature and philosophy are closely related。 While literature studies aspects of human culture, philosophy theories help a lot in reading and interpreting literary works。 Undoubtedly, the conception of heterotopias has inspired numerous men of letters to ponder on literary works from a new perspective。

Melanie Otto(2005) interprets DreamStories (1994), a collection of prose pieces by Barbadian-born poet and critic Kamau Bratbwaite, from the perspective of utopias and heterotopias in it。 He lists some mirror images in the text and agues that the travel between utopias and heterotopias in the Dream Stories has functioned in leading to the most profound layer of meaning that “a journey from inpidual fragmentation and incompleteness towards psychic wholeness。”文献综述

Scholar Liu Yuhong (2011) combine Michel Foucault’s theory of heterotopias and relationship between power and space to analyze the significance of space in Joyce Carol Oates’s fiction in both form and theme。 She points out heterotopias in Oates’s works and concludes that Oates’s fictions tally with the six feathers of Foucault’s heterotopia in form, while in theme, “Oates’s heterotopia is imbued with violence of religion racism and male chauvinism”。

The above studies conducted by scholars both at home and abroad, both interpret literary works form the perspective of Michel Foucault’s theory of heterotopias, which highlights the application and the conception of heterotopias in literature appreciation, as well as the influence of it。 

Coincidentally, the two studies are both triggered by a sense of a kind of mixed, joint experience between utopias and heterotopias in the space。 It indicates that a sort of mixed and joint experience between spaces could be stricken by heterotopias in the text。 In fact, most readers in reading John Updike’s “My Father’s tears” may have neglected this kind of sense, or they are confused how to speak this subtle experience out。 The following chapter will focus on analyzing the heterotopian spaces in John Updike’s “My Father’s tears”。