%0 Journal Article %T Shen Congwen’s Border Town as an example of heterotopia of compensation %A Sarek, Katarzyna %J Gdansk Journal of East Asian Studies %V 2022 %R 10.4467/23538724GS.22.039.17011 %N Issue 22 %P 56-66 %@ 2084-2902 %D 2022 %U https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/gsaw/article/miasto-graniczne-shen-congwena-jako-przyklad-heterotopii-kompensacji %X The concept of heterotopia of compensation created by Michel Foucault with reference to spaces occurring in the real world is also useful in the analysis of literary works. The world depicted in the novella Border Town by Chinese writer Shen Congwen exhibits model features of the heterotopia of compensation. All the elements that make up the presented world – nature, the town, the protagonists or their behavior – are ideal, beautiful, harmonious, and noble. Border Town is a creation of a reality different from the reality surrounding the writer and reflects the typical views among Han nationalities about national minorities as backward and poor, but at the same time living in harmony with nature and cultivating the traditions of the past.