Novels, Maps, Modernity ─ The Spatial Imagination, 1850 - 2000

"Novels, Maps, Modernity is a remarkable book that promises to transform our knowledge of the representation of space in modern fiction." - Brian Richardson, University of Maryland

"Bulson’s informative book maps out the territory and points the way to further research and discovery." - Ian Pindar, Times Literary Supplement

Novels, Maps, Modernity argues that cartographic devices—including maps, sea charts, and aerial photographs—have radically shaped how novelistic space has been imagined and represented from the midnineteenth century to the end of the twentieth. More than an antidote to disorientation, Eric Bulson demonstrates that they conceal a more complex story about capitalism, urbanization, empire, and world war.
Guiding readers through the "cartographic encounters" of Melville, Joyce, Pynchon and the long tradition of literary mapping, Bulson provides an original and thoughtful argument about space and the modern novel.
In this volume, Bulson examines:
• the development of novelistic space from realism to postmodernism
• the "reality effect" of mapping and signposting within novels
• the juxtaposition of map and text
• the rise of literary maps and guidebooks.

Eric Bulson is Associate Professor of English at Claremont Graduate University, US.

List of Figures. Acknowledgements. Introduction: Orienting, Disorienting the Novel 1. On Getting Oriented 2. Melville’s Zig-Zag World-Circle 3. Joyce’s Geodesy 4. Pynchon’s Baedeker Trick 5. On Getting Lost Notes. Bibliography. Index