Geocriticism: Mapping the Spaces of Literature
Date
2009-10
Authors
Tally, Robert T., Jr.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
John Hopkins University Press
Abstract
Literature abounds with the description and exploration of spaces. The writer maps the world, combining a representation of real places with the imaginary space of fiction. In some cases, what I have elsewhere called literary cartography serves to map a well known space (e.g., Dostoevsky’s St. Petersburg or Twain’s Mississippi River); in others, the places mapped may be wholly imaginary (More’s Utopia or Tolkien’s Middle Earth). Most often, the two combine, as the literary representation of a seemingly real place is never the purely mimetic image of that space. In a sense, all writing partakes in a form of cartography, since even the most realistic map does not truly depict the space, but, like literature, figures it forth in a complex skein of imaginary relations.
Description
Keywords
literary theory, literary criticism, geography, modern literature, postmodernism, geocriticism, literary cartography, English
Citation
Tally, R. T. (2009). Geocriticism: Mapping the spaces of literature. L'Espirit Créateur: The International Quarterly of French and Francophone Studies, 49(3): 134.