Atlantis as Heterotopia: On the Theoretical Simultaneity of Plato’s Atlantis
Kwasu D. Tembo
Publication: Volume 2 Issue 1
Abstract
This essay offers a theoretical analysis of Plato’s Atlantis. It opens with a close reading of Atlantis based on excerpts from Plato’s account of the island-continent and its city-state detailed in the dialogues of Timaeus and Critias (360 BCE). Further on, it explores the manner in which Plato portrays Atlantis as a heterotopian chronotope so as to develop a speculative theoretical profile and analysis for the mytho-historical island state, testing the Isle as a theoretical space in relation to issues and debates concerning Other spaces, that is, heterotopia and utopia. The methodology in this paper will be to compare and contrast the Platonic Atlantian narrative against two possible models of interpretation; namely, Michel Foucault’s comparison of the relationship between utopia and various types of heterotopias in “Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias” (1984), and Frederic Jameson’s analysis of the tensions between space, time, and utopia in Archaeology of the Future: The Desire Called Utopia and Other Science Fictions (2005).
Keywords: Plato, Atlantis, Foucault, Jameson, Heterotopia, Utopia
Kwasu David Tembo (tembo.kwasu@gmail.com) is a PhD graduate from the University of Edinburgh’s Language, Literatures, and Cultures Department, Scotland. His research interests include, but are not limited to, comics studies, literary theory and criticism, philosophy, and particularly the so-called “prophets of extremity” – Nietzsche, Heidegger, Foucault, and Derrida.