"Somliga blir aldrig galna. Vilka i sanning förfärliga liv de måtte leva." : En komparativ närläsning av hur galenskapen gestaltad i Selma Lagerlöfs Kejsarn av Portugallien och Olivier Bourdeauts I väntan på Bojangles balanserar mellan begreppen utopi och

Sammanfattning: This essay examines the madness portrayed in Selma Lagerlöf’s The Emperor of Portugallia and Olivier Bourdeauts Waiting for Bojangles, in order to identify a conceptual apparatus describing its interaction with the social ordering of reality, using the theoretical concepts of utopia and heterotopia. The concept of utopia used for this essay is the definition formed by Paul Ricoeur and the concept of heterotopia created by Michel Foucault. The examination is carried out by comparing both of the fictive portraits of madness against first Ricoeurs three-legged utopia and secondly against Foucault’s definition of heterotopia. A conclusion is made that the fictive portrait of madness in these two texts generates heterotopias based on utopian fantasies the characters have for their respective existences.