Hétérotopie transcendantale

If the concept of heterotopia is most frequently used practically, we believe it is, in fact, an indispensable concept to understand Foucault's own philosophical trajectory at the end of the 1960s, namely the passage from archaeology to a genealogy. This paper will argue that the concept of heterotopia has to be understood as a transcendental for the archaeological method. By examining this notion in the light of many texts written during the same period, we will demonstrate the centrality of the concept in Foucault's philosophy of that era, its transcendental nature, and the reasons that led to its withdrawal in the 1970s. This will lead us to propose a new definition of archaeology, centred around the primordiality of the lived-body (corps propre).