Introduction: ‘Other spaces’ and dark places: reading heterotopia in Japanese literature and culture

Journal article

This special issue of the Japan Forum titled ‘“Other spaces” and dark places: reading heterotopia in Japanese literature and culture’ takes inspiration from Michel Foucault’s theory of ‘heterotopia’ to examine sites that, while closely tied to the temporal and spatial network of Japanese contemporary daily life, also stand apart from the everyday. The spaces we examine vary in nature and across time periods: from the geospatial to the metaphorical, the real to the imagined, the Occupation period to fictional futures. The special issue contains the works of the following scholars: Stephen Dodd, Filippo Cervelli, Thomas Lamarre, Seiji Lippit, Thomas Garcin and Linda Flores. In our explorations of diverse sites such as nightclubs, futuristic societies, university clubs, black markets, convenience stores and narrative space, we demonstrate methods for reading these spaces which are closely intertwined with everyday society but also serve to critique or offer respite from the very society they mirror or represent.

Authors: Flores, LM; Garcin, T

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Routledge
• Journal: Japan Forum
• Volume: 37
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 593-598
• Publication date: 2025-11-20
• Acceptance date: 2025-09-24
• DOI: 10.1080/09555803.2025.2571598
• EISSN: 1469-932X
• ISSN: 0955-5803
• Language: English
• Keywords: heterotopia; Michel Foucault; space; modern literature; utopia; dystopia