Barbara Piatti, Anne-Kathrin Reuschel, Hans Rudolf Bär, Lorenz Hurni

The Geography of Fiction – The Project “A Literary Atlas of Europe” (Original Title: Die Geographie der Fiktion – Das Projekt "Ein literarischer Atlas Europas"

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Summary

Where is the setting of literature? How does fiction make use of existing geographical spaces over a period of several centuries? At the Institute of Cartography of ETH Zurich an interactive prototype of a literary atlas of Europe is currently under development. The system is designed to make visible the specific geography of fiction, which has its own dimensions and follows its own rules, but which nevertheless corresponds with and stands in mutually dependant relation to real-world areas and places.

The goal is to set up a new literary history of Europe, spatially structured and cartographically supported. Allowing for individual queries, visualisations and ongoing addition of data, the atlas system opens a promising new horizon for literary studies.

Keywords: literature, fiction, setting, literary theory, literary geography, literary atlas, maps, interactive mapping, interactive atlas, visualisation, imprecise geography, statistical surfaces, database.

Piatti, B. (2008); Reuschel, A.K.; Bär, H. R.; Hurni, L.: Die Geographie der Fiktion – Das Projekt "Ein literarischer Atlas Europas". In: Kartographische Nachrichten 06/2008, S. 287-294. → Download [6.7MB]