Es lächelt der See – Literary Hikinguide at Rotpunktverlag

Impessions from the advanced announcement of the new book publication:

Modelling Uncertain Geodata for the Literary Atlas of Europe

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Abstract: Mapping literary spaces is an interdisciplinary challenge for both literary theory and cartographic realisation. The inherent properties of textual space compared to real-world geospace are introduced and discussed in relation to build a data model for the on-going project, ‘Literary Atlas of Europe’. Spatial descriptions in fiction are often vague, transformed or hardly locatable within the real-world geospace which serves as basis for the analysis and visualisation. To reflect the fictional world, additional attributes and composed geometries are required. To solve the problem, an attributed spatial data model was developed to meet the requirements for a comparative, flexible study of literary spaces with numerous thematical questions. Using this model, spatial data of fictional texts were classified into settings, zones of actions, projected spaces, routes and marker. To emphasise the complexity of the model, the internal structure and diversity are illustrated with the examples of the spatial objects setting and route.

More information about the data model, with excerpts from the paper can be found on the following page: ➔ Link

Reuschel, Anne-Kathrin (2012); Hurni, Lorenz : Modelling Uncertain Geodata for the Literary Atlas of Europe. In: Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Understanding Different Geographies, Karel Kriz et al.(eds.), Berlin Heidelberg: Springer, pp.135-157. ➔ Download

From the text to the map – Literary geography an impulse generator (Original title: Vom Text zur Karte – Literaturkartographie als Ideengenerator)

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Piatti, Barbara (2012): Vom Text zur Karte. Literaturkartographie als Ideengenerator. In: Kartographisches Denken. Hrsg. von Christian Reder. Wien: Springer 2012,  S. 269-279.  ➔ Download

A Literary Atlas of Europe. Mapping and Analysing the Geography of Fiction with Interactive Tools

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In connection with a presentation of the ongoing doctoral thesis of Anne-Kathrin Reuschel (which covers all technical and cartographical questions of the »Literary Atlas of Europe«) a poster has been prepared that summarizes the atlas project. It deals mainly with data modeling and data acquisition as well as with  visualisations of single objects of fictional spaces. Comprehensive descriptions can also be found on the following websites: data model, data aquisition and single object maps.

The  poster can be downloaded as pdf version at the bottom of this side.

Abstract:
It all starts with the supposedly simple questions: Where is literature set and why there? The nascent research area of literary geography aims at visibly rendering overlays of real and fictional geographies to perform complex spatial analyses.

This includes fictionalisation processes over time (of a region, a city); interactions between fiction and reality; and last but not least coherences between natural phenomena, historical or political events on the one side and the quality or quantity of fictional spaces on the other side. What has been lacking up to now is a common ground in form of a consistent methodology in order to break down the geography of fiction and a data model which is able to reproduce inherent rules of fictional spaces.

The «Literary Atlas of Europe» aims to provide the technical workaround for literary scholars. It allows – in one system – the combinations and comparisons of all analysed data along with adequate, automated, interactive visualisations of individual spatial objects, calculation of statistical surfaces and more complex GIS analyses.

Literary Atlas of Europe (POSTER preview)

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Reading with Maps. Plea for a viualised Geography of Fiction (Original title: Mit Karten lesen. Plädoyer für eine visualisierte Geographie der Literatur)

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Barbara Piatti: Mit Karten lesen. Plädoyer für eine visualisiere Geographie der Literatur. In: Boothe, B., Bühler, P. et al. (Hrsg.): Textwelt -Lebenswelt. Interpretation interdisziplinär Bd. 10. Würzburg: Königshausen & Neumann 2012, S. 261-288. ➔ Download

 von Claudia Schmid (2011)

Die Vierwaldstättersee-Gotthard-Region ist zweifellos eine der am dichtesten beschriebenen Literaturlandschaften Europas.

Barbara Piatti, Literaturwissenschaftlerin

Die spektakuläre Landschaft der Vierwaldstättersee-Region mit ihren Tälern und Berggipfeln hat literarische Spuren hinterlassen. Namhafte Autorinnen und Autoren der Weltliteratur sowie zahlreiche lokal verankerte Schriftstellerinnen und Schriftsteller haben sich schreibend mit der Region befasst. Der Dokumentarfilm führt auf eine faszinierende Reise durch Innerschweizer Landschaften und Buchseiten. Er stellt eine Auswahl historischer und aktueller Autorenpersönlichkeiten vor. Stimmige Textzitate lassen eintauchen in vergangene und visionäre Gedankenwelten und machen Lust auf eigene Lese-Entdeckungen.

The Literary Central Switzerland – a cinematic approach,
by Claudia Schmid, CH 2011, 82′, Dialect/German
(C) Albert Koechlin Stiftung AKS.
This documentary movie was shown in the cinema and is supplement of the following book (german language):
Ulrich Suter, Die literarische Innerschweiz. Regionen, Porträts mit Leseproben, Literatenverzeichnis.

The Literary Central Switzerland Flyer

» „over the Wall“ and the hole in the middle of Berlin. Berlin literature before and after the reunification  – from a literary geography perspective« (Master thesis, University of Basel 2010)

Download of thesis (in German)_[1 MB]