Mapping Joaquín: How Literary Cartography Opens New Perspectives on the Western Novel
Primary Faculty Mentor’s Name
Anastasia Lin
Proposal Track
Student
Session Format
Paper Presentation
Abstract
Some scholars, among them Peter Turchi, argue that the relationship between literature and geography is important to consider when looking at a text. Virginia Woolf claims that by connecting these two disciplines we run the risk of disillusionment and destroy our imagination by trying to make fiction tangible through reality. While the connection of literature and geography, namely literary cartography, is on the forefront in Europe, the majority of literature scholars in the United States seem to be of the same opinion as Woolf, as this tool is only seldom used when analyzing and criticizing a fictional text. My paper shows that a simple literary cartography approach allows us to read a novel from a new perspective. For this purpose I have chosen “The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta” by John Rollin Ridge, a novel that follows the fictional Mexican bandit Joaquín Murieta on his exploits through California while he prepares to kill all white Americans. Through pinning each place that Joaquín visits onto a Google Map and then tracing those points chronologically, we create a map that shows the area covered by Joaquin as well as his journey. This allows us to read the novel as a travelogue, while further work may allow us to layer data on socio-economic status, distribution of population and other aspects of California in the 1850s to draw further conclusions about the novel. Using this approach of literary cartography, we can reestablish this novel as an important historical artifact because it is the first novel published in California as well as the first novel published by a Native American and because it maps a realistic journey through California. I argue that using literary cartography as a means of text analysis opens up new perspectives to literature and helps us connect fictional texts to reality while shedding new light on the importance of literary cartography to literary criticism.
Keywords
literary cartography, joaquin murieta, Western
Location
Room 2905
Presentation Year
2015
Start Date
11-7-2015 1:00 PM
End Date
11-7-2015 2:00 PM
Publication Type and Release Option
Presentation (Open Access)
Recommended Citation
Kokula, Reinhild, "Mapping Joaquín: How Literary Cartography Opens New Perspectives on the Western Novel" (2015). Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (2014-2015). 35.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gurc/2015/2015/35
Mapping Joaquín: How Literary Cartography Opens New Perspectives on the Western Novel
Room 2905
Some scholars, among them Peter Turchi, argue that the relationship between literature and geography is important to consider when looking at a text. Virginia Woolf claims that by connecting these two disciplines we run the risk of disillusionment and destroy our imagination by trying to make fiction tangible through reality. While the connection of literature and geography, namely literary cartography, is on the forefront in Europe, the majority of literature scholars in the United States seem to be of the same opinion as Woolf, as this tool is only seldom used when analyzing and criticizing a fictional text. My paper shows that a simple literary cartography approach allows us to read a novel from a new perspective. For this purpose I have chosen “The Life and Adventures of Joaquín Murieta” by John Rollin Ridge, a novel that follows the fictional Mexican bandit Joaquín Murieta on his exploits through California while he prepares to kill all white Americans. Through pinning each place that Joaquín visits onto a Google Map and then tracing those points chronologically, we create a map that shows the area covered by Joaquin as well as his journey. This allows us to read the novel as a travelogue, while further work may allow us to layer data on socio-economic status, distribution of population and other aspects of California in the 1850s to draw further conclusions about the novel. Using this approach of literary cartography, we can reestablish this novel as an important historical artifact because it is the first novel published in California as well as the first novel published by a Native American and because it maps a realistic journey through California. I argue that using literary cartography as a means of text analysis opens up new perspectives to literature and helps us connect fictional texts to reality while shedding new light on the importance of literary cartography to literary criticism.
