Heterotopic Yeats: A Foucauldian Study of the Heterotopic Qualities Found in Some Poems by W. B. Yeats

Michel Foucault is certainly one of the greatest minds of the 20th century whose ever-growing influence may be traced in nearly every field of humanities such as economy, history, and of course, literary theory and criticism. The concept of heterotopia is arguably among the most intriguing concepts developed through the works of Foucault. Simply stated, a heterotopia is a space whose function is to disturb the established order of an existing space, and, as a result, lead to the production of knowledge. However, heterotopias found in Foucault’s own works are usually functioning in linguistic, or textual, terms rather than referring to a real, physical space. The purpose of the present essay is to provide its readers with the analyses of some of the poems of the Noble-winning Irish poet, dramatist, and prose writer W. B. Yeats in terms of their heterotopic qualities, and to show that physical heterotopias can also lead to the production of knowledge