heterotopia/Foucault Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Due to the obviousness and multidimensionality of its nature, theatre can be viewed as a pedagogical place. In such a context, the concept of a travelling theatre , on the example of FairyBus, gains particular significance and allows, in turn, for interpretations in the categories of heterotopia. Maria Mendel, the forerunner of the category of place-based education in Po-land, notes: "Education, which beyond any doubt is a form of interference, always happens 'somewhere' and has a 'place', and since it initiates a dialectical relation between the pupil and the world, it becomes metaphysics; an ontology that occurs in the conditions of reciprocity and transcendence" 1. In her deliberations on space and culture, Mendel begins with, and expands, the understanding of a place as proposed by Michel Foucault. The philosopher defined heterotopias, the "other places", in opposition to the notion of utopia: a place with no place, an unreal space. Thus, a heterotopia is a real place existing in society-or more likely on its "fringes"-and is shaped by that society 2. In Mendel's interpretation, the culture shapes space as it is composed of "our own" intertwining places, to which we ourselves assign meanings. In other words, we co-create the world, making it "our own", "fitting inside of it", meaning "having our place (places) within it" 3. In the words of the authoress, the culture "constitutes a place of places" that intersects in the gaze of human beings 4 , i.e. the reflections of the material fragment of reality, 1 M. Mendel, Wstęp [Introduction], [in:] Pedagogika miejsca [Place-based Education], M. Men-del (ed.), Wydawnictwo Naukowe Dolnośląskiej Szkoły Wyższej Edukacji TWP we Wrocławiu, Wrocław 2006, p. 9. 2 M. Foucault, Of Other Spaces (1967), Heterotopias [online], accessed on: 18. 04. 2012, available at: http://foucault.info/documents/heteroTopia/foucault.heteroTopia.en.html. 3 M. Ejsmont, B. Kosmalska, M. Mendel (eds.), Obraz, przestrzeń, popkultura. Inspiracje badawcze w polu pedagogiki społecznej [Image, Space, Pop-culture. Research Inspirations for Social Pedagogy], Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2007, pp. 169-170. 4 Mendel refers to the mirror that Foucault describes both as a utopia and a heterotopia. A mirror is an intersection of the existing, i.e. heterotopia, and the non-existent, i.e. utopia, and the gaze of the person standing in front of it; M. Foucault, Of Other Spaces…; M. Ejsmont, B. Kosmalska, M. Men-del (eds.), op. cit., p. 170.