Mapping fiction: Spatialising the literary work

Abstract

How do we move through and negotiate the experience of the literary work of art? What do we understand by ‘literary place’ or ‘space’ and what are the implications of this for the mapping or spatialising of literary texts in digital media? This chapter will begin to address such questions as well as raise some of the difficulties involved in applying concepts of mapping to literature. Unlike other chapters in this collection it does not emerge from a current digital project but, instead, considers ways forward for future projects in the field of Literary Studies. Throughout the chapter Thomas Hardy’s novel, The Return of the Native, is used as an example to ground ideas.