Heterotopic Spaces as Pathways to Discovering Transcultural Self in Brian Castro’s Shanghai Dancing and Birds of Passage

Abstract

Abstract This essay seeks to explore the role of heterotopic spaces in the formation of transcultural self and belonging in Brian Castro’s novels Shanghai Dancing and Birds of Passage. Drawing on Michel Foucault’s initial idea of heterotopia, which relates to fictional representations of semi-mythical places, my argument aims at investigating the process of discovering one’s cultural identity within heterotopic spaces, the spaces capable of juxtaposing elements incompatible in time or character. Focusing on textual heterotopias and heterotopias of memory in literary texts, this work examines how Brian Castro employs this concept to depict the intricacies of identity formation in his narratives. Thus, I set out to examine how heterotopic spaces in these two narratives open up a path towards understanding transcultural selfhood.