Mapping literary spaces
The etymology of the term ‘plot’ goes back to Old English when one of the meanings of
‘plot’ or ‘plat’ was a plan or map of land. That this term should have migrated to
describe the narrative structure of fiction reveals the parallels that can be drawn between fictional creation and map-making; as Peter Turchi (2004: 13) writes: ‘in every piece we
write, we contemplate a world; and as that world would not otherwise exist, we create it
even as we discover it.’ Turchi pursues these parallels along two lines of argument: not
only does the writer create a fictional geography and setting for their story, but the very
processes of writing resemble those of the cartographer since they involve choice of
perspective, forms of symbolic representation, the selection of features to foreground,
the depiction of relationships, and the drawing of boundaries. And through these
processes, both writer and cartographer must conjure up the illusion of creating a
simulacrum of reality, establishing a relationship with the real world that convinces the
reader/user not of its absolute fidelity but of its validity, its usefulness and its relevance.
Mapping literary spacesThe etymology of the term ‘plot’ goes back to Old English when one of the meanings of‘plot’ or ‘plat’ was a plan or map of land. That this term should have migrated todescribe the narrative structure of fiction reveals the parallels that can be drawn between fictional creation and map-making; as Peter Turchi (2004: 13) writes: ‘in every piece wewrite, we contemplate a world; and as that world would not otherwise exist, we create iteven as we discover it.’ Turchi pursues these parallels along two lines of argument: notonly does the writer create a fictional geography and setting for their story, but the veryprocesses of writing resemble those of the cartographer since they involve choice ofperspective, forms of symbolic representation, the selection of features to foreground,the depiction of relationships, and the drawing of boundaries. And through theseprocesses, both writer and cartographer must conjure up the illusion of creating asimulacrum of reality, establishing a relationship with the real world that convinces thereader/user not of its absolute fidelity but of its validity, its usefulness and its relevance.
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