Chronotopic Cartography: Mapping Literary Time-Space

Abstract

This short methods paper emerges out of the AHRC-funded ‘Chronotopic Cartographies’ project for the digital mapping of place and space as represented in works of literature. The primary aim of that project was to find a way of mapping and visualizing represented literary worlds for which there is no corresponding real ‘ground’. A solution was found in the form of topological graphs which allow for relative rather than absolute mapping (but also permit a relative imaginary map to be lain on top of a pre-existing cartesian form). Using a spatial schema to chunk out the text in terms of chronotopic (time-space) zones enables the generation of a series of visualizations that show different kinds of spatio-temporal constructions in texts. The visualizations are centred upon nodes that consist of chronotopes (e.g. ‘the road’) as well as locations (e.g. ‘road to Geneva’); connections between them of different kinds and toporefs within them (references to other places from this one). The paper will articulate core methods from the project, outlining the stages involved in the process, from marking up the text, using a custom-made schema, through graph generation and into the implications for analysis. This will be illustrated in relation to two Victorian texts: the realist space of Dickens’s Oliver Twist; and the abstract poetic space of Browning’s ‘Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came’.

A dynamic topography for visualizing time and space in fictional literary texts

“…This reflects the literary topologies created in the Chronotopic Cartographies project. Initial observations of these configurations reveal four main visual features, hubs, clusters, chains and loops, as seen in Figure 6, which are suggestive of underlying patterns within the literary topology (Bushell et al, 2021). Hubs are groups of connected topoi linked around a specific place and suggest significant or often visited places in the narrative.…”

“…One of the associated aims of the Chronotopic Cartographies project was to explore the possibilities of dynamic visualization environments (Bushell et al, 2021). Although very insightful, the literary topology graph visualizations were limited due to their static nature, showing the spatial view 'all at once' and thus flattening time and space into a single perspective, as can be seen in Figure 1.…”

“…The project provided a way of re-imaging the relative spatial relationships of fictional literary places; mapping them as 'literary topologies' (Bushell et al, 2021).…”