Literature and Cartography: Theories, Histories, Genres (MIT Press)

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.

. 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

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. Noyes, Ricardo Padrón, Barbara Piatti, Simone Pinet, Clara Rowland, Oliver Simons, Robert Stockhammer, Dominic Thomas, Burkhardt Wolf. 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. 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. When cartographic aspirations outstripped factual knowledge, mapmakers turned to textual fictions.ContributorsJean-Marc Besse, Bruno Bosteels, Patrick M. This book gathers leading scholars to consider the relationship of literature and cartography. 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 cartograp