Geopoetries: 5 metaphors and stories with longitude and latitude

2015

This interview with Dr. Robert T. Tally Jr. (associate professor of English at Texas State University) aims to highlight the strong interrelation between literature and space from the starting point of Geocriticism. With this term, which was coined to define a new discipline able to interact with “literary studies, geography, urbanism and architecture” (Tally 2011: xiv), in fact, Tally offers a theoretical basis for spatiality in relation to literature.

This interview with Dr. Robert T. Tally Jr. (associate professor of English at Texas State University) aims to highlight the strong interrelation between literature and space from the starting point of Geocriticism. With this term, which was coined to define a new discipline able to interact with “literary studies, geography, urbanism and architecture” (Tally 2011: xiv), in fact, Tally offers a theoretical basis for spatiality in relation to literature.

Dialogues in Human Geography, 2021

In this engagement with Eric Magrane’s article, ‘Climate Geopoetics (The Earth is a Composted Poem)’, I follow two provocations: first, geopoetics as travelling through disciplinary turfs, and second, geopoetics as storytelling. Coming from a disciplinary trajectory that spent a long stop at international relations (IR), these provocations attach me to geopoetics as practice and a growing field. My engagement here is oriented to geopoetics not only at the threshold of geography and the arts and humanities, but also the intersections of geography and politics. I primarily propose that viewing geopoetics as an open space for experimenting allows for disrupting masterful understandings of the academic self and counters a univocal, universal narrative of the world.

2015

Series description: Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies is a new book series focusing on the dynamic relations among space, place, and literature. The spatial turn in the humanities and social sciences has occasioned an explosion of innovative, multidisciplinary scholarship in recent years, and geocriticism, broadly conceived, has been among the more promising developments in spatially oriented literary studies. Whether focused on literary geography, cartography, geopoetics, or the spatial humanities more generally, geocritical approaches enable readers to reflect upon the representation of space and place, both in imaginary universes and in those zones where fiction meets reality. Titles in the series include both monographs and collections of essays devoted to literary criticism, theory, and history, often in association with other arts and sciences. Drawing on diverse critical and theoretical traditions, books in the Geocriticism and Spatial Literary Studies series disclose, analyze, and explore the significance of space, place, and mapping in literature and in the world.

This essay seeks to critically conceptualize the term geocultural space and the emerging field of study with which it is associated by exploring the various ways in which such space is currently being mapped by researchers using digital humanities tools and methods. In drawing together intersecting interests in Geographic Information Systems and spatio-cultural narratives and experiences, this work defines an interdisciplinary field of research that is gathering momentum as geolocative technologies that shape and reshape the ways in which we perceive and experience the world become increasingly prevalent in academic life and in the cultural mainstream. Since the " spatial turn " 1 in cultural theory in the late 1980s, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Geographic Information Science are no longer the preserve of geography departments; rather, digital mapping projects exist within such otherwise disparate disciplines as literary and cultural studies, history, health sciences, media studies and marine biology, to name just a few. Many of these projects are either using digital mapping tools to engage with notions of geocultural space or are creating digital artefacts that have implications for the ways in which geographic and environmental spaces are culturally understood. Although researchers undertaking digital mapping may be based in institutes and faculties between which there is little opportunity for dialogue or sharing ideas and techniques, GIS arguably establishes a bridge between research in the sciences and the humanities. Interdisciplinary research of this nature rests not only on shared research methods, it also necessitates thinking through the implications of such work in terms of what geocultural space is and how it may be conceptualized.

2011

Although time traditionally dominated the perspectives of the humanities and social sciences, space has reasserted itself in the contexts of postmodernity, postcolonialism, and globalization. Today, a number of emerging critical discourses connect geography, architecture, and environmental studies, among others to literature, film, and the mimetic arts. Bertrand Westphal'sGeocriticism explores these diverse fields, examines various theories of space and place, and proposes a new critical practice suitable for understanding our spatial condition today. Drawing on a wide array of theoretical and literary resources from around the globe and from antiquity to the present, Westphal argues for a geocritical approach to literary and cultural studies. This volume is an indispensible touchstone for those interested in the interactions between literature and space.

Special issue of Topoi, Vol. 20:2, 2001

Geography has been much neglected by philosophers. Yet geography presents an interesting and intricate trade-off between empirical issues, on the one hand, and deep philosophical issues (from ontology to political philosophy), on the other. What is a geographic entity? What is the relationship between a geographic entity and a physical territory? Can a geographic entity survive without a territory or without definite borders? Can it survive radical changes in its territory? Are there clear-cut identity criteria for geographic categories? Contributors: B. Bennett, R. Casati, J. Collins, A. Galton, B. Smith, A. L. Thomasson, A. C. Varzi, L. Zaibert.

Area, 2002

This paper considers alternative ways to approach teaching and researching the history and philosophy of geography. While exploring the geography department as a previously marginalized space in accounts of disciplinary change, three different types of source are identified: first, less formal kinds of documentation; second, material sites; and third, a bodily archive of action, gesture and movement. In combination, these are shown to open up new possibilities for localized, grass–roots versions of geography’s pasts and presents.

Cartographic Perspectives, 2021

Geographers are often asked “what is geography?”, and the number of answers to this question nearly equals the number of geographers. We (and others) argue that it is the spatial dimension that makes geography different, and that to do geography, one must communicate spatial information. Cartography is one of the key forms of spatial communication. However, the geographic literature often lacks maps. To examine this, we reviewed 67 years of the Annals of the American Association of Geographers to test any trends in the presence/absence of maps, the influence of editors, and how any trends related to changes in the field of geography. On average, 24% of the papers published did not contain maps. Roughly speaking, papers from the 1950s, mid-1970s through the 1980s, and from 2000–present were the least likely to contain maps. Papers in the 1960s, early 1970s, and mid-1990s contained the most. The influence of editors on the percentage of papers published without maps was significant, b...