Carto-fiction: narrativising maps through creative writing (original) (raw)

2018, Social & Cultural Geography

This study reacts to the recent call for a narrativisation of maps' life in post-representational cartography, proposing 'cartographic fictional writing' as a means to move geography's 'creative (re)turn' from a placecentred to a 'carto-centred' perspective, and as an epistemological tool to go on rethinking maps from post-representational perspectives. First, 'carto-fiction' is defined as a self-reflexive (autoethnographic), ethnofictional, creative carto-centred product/practice of research. Second, by including the entire short story entitled 'Unfolding Berlin' and an autoethnographic account on how it emerged, this study strives to both theorise and perform carto-fictional writing as an embodied and trans-subjective mapping experience. My goal is to propose 'carto-fiction' as a prolific tool to let emotional, subjective cartographies emerge and to narrativise maps as mapping practices. The article further strives to focus on the mapping power of creative writing, and carto-fictional writing and reading will be interpreted as mapping performances, in which subjects are bodily and emotionally engaged. The inclusion of original illustrations aims to involve readers in a visual experience and to further stimulate their spatial imagination: each reader is asked to reflect on his/her own mapping experiences to interpret the fictional story and, thus, the paper itself attempts to unfold unpredicted creative cartographic practices. Carto-fiction: narrativiser les cartes à travers l'écriture créative RÉSUMÉ Cette étude est une réaction à la demande récente de narrativisation de la vie des cartes dans la cartographie post-représentationnelle, proposant « une écriture de fiction cartographique » comme moyen de déplacer le « (re)tour créatif » d'une perspective centrée sur le lieu vers une perspective carto-centrée et en tant qu'outil épistémologique pour continuer à repenser les cartes à partir de perspectives postreprésentationnelles. Tout d'abord, la « carto-fiction » est définie comme un produit/une pratique créative, auto-réflexive (autoethnographique) et ethno-fictionnelle centrée sur la carte. Ensuite, en incluant la nouvelle complète intitulée « Déplier Berlin » et un récit auto-ethnographique de la façon dont elle est née, cette étude s'efforce de théoriser et en même temps de donner une représentation de l'écriture carto-fictionnelle en tant qu'outil prolifique pour laisser les cartographies émotionnelles et subjectives émerger et pour narrativiser les cartes comme pratiques de cartographie. Cet article © 2018 informa uK limited, trading as taylor & Francis Group KEYWORDS Now, some of you readers will think I'm too distracted and absentminded to be a reliable writer. That's probably true. Others, on the contrary, will think that I'm a clever plotter playing with the minds of her readers in the same way she manipulates those of her characters. No matter who I am, I hope the story-if it can be called a story-speaks now for itself. And please, just remember that if something seems to you somehow out of the ordinary and incomplete, or even trivial and insignificant, in the way characters move and make their decisions, in the way the narrator comments what they're doing or not saying, well, that's not only the way fiction works but also the way life plots our existences. Because this is not a book, and more important I'm not a writer, I don't want to spin out this... prologue? At this point, all I ask of you unexpected readers is to help me make Frank's story happen, again and again, until we find at least one reasonable sense to give to his map. Thus, even you are asked to fill up some holes hither and thither, being yourself a party to a trick that some would just call fiction. The border between reality and fiction will sometimes be evident; at other times it will fade away, dissolving into the intricate maze of lines composing this urban map. All I can say is that if it's important to you to draw a line between real and fictional maps, to separate facts and 'stories' , then you'd better leave these pages where you accidentally found them all. I ask of you readers is to help me make Frank's story happen, again and again, until we find at least one reasonable sense to give to his map. Thus, even you are asked to fill up some holes hither and thither, being yourself a party to a trick that some would just call literature. The border between reality and fiction will sometimes be evident; at other times it will fade away, dissolving into the intricate maze of lines composing this urban map. All I can say is that if it's important to you to draw a line between real and fictional maps, to separate facts and 'stories' , then you'd better leave these pages where you accidentally found them.