关键词: 博尔赫斯, 福柯, 比较主义, 分类法, 异托邦

Abstract: Jorge Luis Borges' famous taxonomy of animals inspires Michel Foucault's idea of “heterotopia.” But the “Chinese Encyclopedia,” from which the taxonomy is said to be cited, is testified fictitious by Zhang Longxi. From the discussions concerning such a hermeneutical event, two lines of reasoning can be drawn, which are, respectively, a comparatism-seeking-for-the-same and a comparatism-seeking-for-the-other. Met￣ho￣do￣logi￣cally, the two lines converge on the call for “an inquiry of the concrete,” that is, a point already suggested by Aristotle's Poetics. A scrutinized reading on Borges' text shows that the taxonomy is girdled by a series of unreliable narratives. Such a shakiness, which may cause every scholar's inquiry to falter, does not escape Borges' consciousness. The fictitiousness of the taxonomy is also noticed by Foucault, who uses it as an analogy to challenge the common logic of classification. After citing an image of China “in our dream,” Foucault raises the concept of “heterotopia,” and theorizes it one year later in an essay, where heterotopia is understood not only as a sub-division of real spaces, but also as a mode of critique emphasizing the concreteness and realness of spatial power relations. As regards the search for a real equivalent in Chinese literature to Borges' taxonomy, scholarly endeavors abound. Among them, stands out a passage on biological metamorphoses in Zhuagnzi, of which, a certain concrete relation to Borgesian taxonomy can be found.

Key words: Borges, Foucault, comparatism, taxonomy, heterotopia