Literature and Cartography: Theories, Histories, Genres (Mit Press) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0262036746 ISBN 13: 9780262036740

Publisher: The MIT Press, 2017

Synopsis

The relationship of texts and maps, and the mappability of literature, examined from Homer to Houellebecq.

Literary authors have frequently called on elements of cartography to ground fictional space, to visualize sites, and to help readers get their bearings in the imaginative world of the text. Today, the convergence of digital mapping and globalization has spurred a cartographic turn in literature. This book gathers leading scholars to consider the relationship of literature and cartography. Generously illustrated with full-color maps and visualizations, it offers the first systematic overview of an emerging approach to the study of literature.

The literary map is not merely an illustrative guide but represents a set of relations and tensions that raise questions about representation, fiction, and space. Is literature even mappable? In exploring the cartographic components of literature, the contributors have not only brought literary theory to bear on the map but have also enriched the vocabulary and perspectives of literary studies with cartographic terms. After establishing the theoretical and methodological terrain, they trace important developments in the history of literary cartography, considering topics that include Homer and Joyce, Goethe and the representation of nature, and African cartographies. Finally, they consider cartographic genres that reveal the broader connections between texts and maps, discussing literary map genres in American literature and the coexistence of image and text in early maps. When cartographic aspirations outstripped factual knowledge, mapmakers turned to textual fictions.

Contributors
Jean-Marc Besse, Bruno Bosteels, Patrick M. Bray, Martin Brückner, Tom Conley, Jörg Dünne, Anders Engberg-Pedersen, John K. Noyes, Ricardo Padrón, Barbara Piatti, Simone Pinet, Clara Rowland, Oliver Simons, Robert Stockhammer, Dominic Thomas, Burkhardt Wolf

About this title

About the Author:

Anders Engberg-Pedersen is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Southern Denmark and the author of Empire of Chance: The Napoleonic Wars and the Disorder of Things.

Anders Engberg-Pedersen is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Southern Denmark and the author of Empire of Chance: The Napoleonic Wars and the Disorder of Things.

Review:

The editor has done an excellent job in assembling this volume of essays that bring the fields of literature and cartography together in an exciting and accessible manner.

―Ian Gregory, Professor of Digital Humanities, Lancaster University; coeditor of The Routledge Handbook of Spatial History

About this edition

• Publisher: The MIT Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 0262036746
• ISBN 13: 9780262036740
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 480
• Editor: Engberg-Pedersen Anders