French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Piatti, Die Geographie der Literatur
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Barbara Piatti: Die Geographie der Literatur. Schauplätze, Handlungsräume, Raumphantasien. Göttingen, Wallstein Verlag, 2008. 424 pages, 61 ill.
- ISBN-13: 978-3835303294
- 39.00 EUR.
Publisher's Overview
Where does literature take place? This seemingly simple question opens up a nascent field of research featuring novel methodological approaches under the banner of "literary geography".
Every literary plot is located somewhere, ranging on a scale from entirely imaginary settings to realistically depicted locations with a high degree of recognizability. Literary geography places the manifold relationships between fictional spaces and real-world spaces at the center of attention: literature possesses a specific geography that follows its very own rules. After all, fictional spaces are never merely mimetic reflections of reality, even when they refer to existing landscapes and cities. Rather, the poetological techniques of estrangement, superposition, renaming, and the combination of real places with fictional elements must be incorporated into visualization concepts and the interpretation of text analyses.
This theory is first applied to a model region exceptionally rich in literary settings: Lake Lucerne and the Gotthard Massif in Central Switzerland. Subsequently, the methodological horizon is expanded toward a literary atlas—highlighting the potential of literary-geographical concepts for a comparative European literary history.
Seventeen enclosed four-color fold-out maps enable a nuanced comparison between fictional and real landscapes.
About the Author
Barbara Piatti, born in 1973, studied German philology and earned her doctorate in Basel, with research fellowships in Kiel, Stanford (USA), and Prague. Since 2006, she has been leading the internationally connected, interdisciplinary research project "A Literary Atlas of Europe" at the Institute of Cartography at ETH Zurich.
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http://www.literaturkritik.de/public/rezension.php?rez_id=12586
The emerging field of literary geography examines how literary texts construct space, moving between entirely imaginary settings and realistically depicted locations. Scholars in this area investigate the complex ways in which fictional worlds interact with geographical reality, recognizing that literary landscapes follow their own internal rules rather than functioning as simple reflections of the physical world. This approach engages with broader traditions in literary theory and spatial analysis, considering how settings are shaped by poetological techniques and cultural imagination across various literary genres and historical periods.
Barbara Piatti studied German philology and earned her doctorate in Basel, with research fellowships in Kiel, Stanford, and Prague. Since 2006, she has been leading a research project at the Institute of Cartography at ETH Zurich. Readers interested in spatial approaches to literature and the relationship between geography and narrative may find this work relevant to their research or general reading.