Between Geography and Literature
How does literature create or recreate a sense of place? Indeed, how do imaginary worlds emerge from the mind? We all know – and geographers agree – that literature adopts all kinds of means to this end: veiled references, innuendo, falsehoods, use of place names (real or imagined), elliptical passages and so forth – in fact, anything that allows the narrator to create a diegetic environment. At the same time, is it not true that, as an instrument to express reality and give voice to the creative urge driving all those using the medium of literature, literary language changes according to the genre chosen to convey that reality? While the interplay of narration and description is fundamental to the evocation of place in literature, it does not obviate the importance of the point of view adopted. This would suggest that we should reconsider the role of the medium chosen – the literary genres employed – in its capacity to represent place. An approach of this kind could lead to a better understanding and recognition of the particular contribution of the writer to the complex issue of how a sense of place is created in literature.