Geocriticism ― Real and Fictional Spaces

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's Geocriticism 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 indispensable touchstone for those interested in the interactions between literature and space.

Bertrand Westphal is Professor of General and Comparative Literature at the University of Limoges, France, where he directs the Espaces Humaines et Interactions Culturelles (EHIC) research group. He is the author of The Plausible World: A Geocritical Approach to Space, Place, and Maps, as well as books on Mediterranean and Austrian literature.

Robert T. Tally Jr. is Associate Professor of English at Texas State University, USA. His work explores the relations among narrative, representation, and social space in American and world literature, criticism, and theory. Tally has been recognized as a leading figure in the emerging fields of geocriticism, spatiality studies, and the spatial humanities. Tally's books include Fredric Jameson: The Project of Dialectical Criticism; Poe and the Subversion of American Literature: Satire, Fantasy, Critique; Utopia in the Age of Globalization: Space, Representation, and the World System; Spatiality; Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel: A Postmodern Iconography; and Melville, Mapping and Globalization: Literary Cartography in the American Baroque Writer. The translator of Bertrand Westphal's Geocriticism: Real and Fictional Spaces, Tally is the editor of Geocritical Explorations: Space, Place, and Mapping in Literary and Cultural Studies; Kurt Vonnegut: Critical Insights; and Literary Cartographies: Spatiality, Representation, and Narrative.