Abstract

In The Order of Things, Foucault shows that the main function of heterotopia is to impede the reference of words to things. A contradiction is evident in the inclusion of the libraryin the heterotopia in “Other Spaces”: there is no better place to investigate and produce knowledge than a library. We analyze Borges’ “The Library of Babel” from the concept of heterotopy, in order to resolve the exact relationship between library, space, and knowledge, and its link with Foucault’s archive concept. Finally, we return to Foucault’s “Language to Infinity,” whose commentary on “The Library of Babel” exposes an effective heterotopy formed by a mise in abyme of language.