Geocriticism: Real and Fictional Spaces

204 Pages·2007·1.033 MB·English

by  Bertrand Westphal (auth.)

Geocriticism
ALSO BY BERTRAND WESTPHAL
Le monde plausible. Espace, lieu, carte
Austro- fictions. Une géographie de l’intime
L’œil de la Méditerranée. Une odyssée littéraire
Roman et Évangile
Littérature et espaces (with Juliette Vion- Drury and Jean- Marie Grassin)
La géocritique mode d’emploi (editor)
Geocriticism
Real and Fictional Spaces
Bertrand Westphal
Translated by Robert T. Tally Jr.
geocriticism
Copyright © Les Éditions de Minuit, 2007.
English translation copyright © 2011 by Robert T. Tally Jr.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2007 978-0-230-11021-2
All rights reserved.
First published in France as La Géocritique: Réel, Fiction, Espace by Les Éditions
de Minuit
First published in English in 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the
United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New
York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the United Kingdom, Europe, and the rest
of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers
Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and
has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the
United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-29257-8 ISBN 978-0-230-11916-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230119161
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-P ublication Data
Westphal, Bertrand.
[Géocritique. English]
Geocriticism : real and fictional spaces / Bertrand Westphal ; translated by
Robert T. Tally Jr.
p. cm.
Originally published in French as La géocritique: réel, fiction, espace.
1. Space in literature. 2. Geography in literature. 3. Geographical perception
in literature. 4. Geography and literature. 5. Geocriticism. 6. Literature,
Modern— History and criticism— Theory, etc. I. Tally, Robert T. II. Title.
PN56.S667W4713 2011
809'.9332— dc22 2010043637
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: May 2011
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to Digital Printing in 2013
À Titti

Contents
Translator’s Preface:
The Timely Emergence of Geocriticism ix
Introduction 1
1 Spatiotemporality 9
2 Transgressivity 37
3 Referentiality 75
4 Elements of Geocriticism 111
5 Reading Spaces 149
Notes 171
Index 187

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE
The Timely Emergence
of Geocriticism
In recent years, space—a long with such related concepts or practices as spatial-
ity, mapping, topography, deterritorialization, and so forth—h as become a key
term for literary and cultural studies. The nineteenth century had been domi-
nated by a discourse of time, history, and teleological development (following
in the Hegelian tradition) and by a modernist aesthetic that enshrined the tem-
poral, especially with respect to individual psychology (à la Marcel Proust’s In
Search of Lost Time). But after the Second World War, space began to reassert
itself in critical theory, rivaling if not overtaking time. The “spatial turn”1 was
aided by a new aesthetic sensibility that came to be understood as postmodern-
ism, with a strong theoretical critique provided by poststructuralism, especially
in French philosophy, but quickly extending into various countries and dis-
ciplines. Moreover, the transformational effects of postcolonialism, globaliza-
tion, and the rise of ever more advanced information technologies helped to
push space into the foreground, as traditional spatial or geographic limits were
blurred, erased, or redrawn. In this context, critics and theorists had to develop
novel interpretive and critical models to address what Fredric Jameson, referring
specifically to Edward Soja’s illuminating study, has called the “new spatiality
implicit in the postmodern.”2 In the churning wake of the postmodern condi-
tion— or perhaps, now, post- postmodern condition— we are understandably
interested in making, reading, and revising our maps. Space is, well, timely.
Thus, it is also timely that Bertrand Westphal’s Geocriticism: Real and Fic-
tional Spaces appears (now in English). Westphal, who directs the research team
devoted to “Espaces Humains et Interactions Culturelles” at the Université de
Limoges, has long advocated a “geocentered” approach to literature and cultural
studies, which would allow a particular place to serve as the focal point for a
variety of critical practices. Thus, Westphal’s edited collection on the Mediter-
ranean3 looked at the various depictions of that multifaceted zone— whether