French Literature Reviews - 2026
B. Westphal, Atlas of Straying. Geocritical Studies
Literary Theory, Linguistics and Stylistics
Review published in Acta Fabula (January 2020, vol. 21, no. 2): Aurélien d'Avout, "Geocriticism in Situ: Through the Detours of the Map"
Bertrand Westphal
Atlas des égarements. Études géocritiques
Minuit, April 2019
192 pages
ISBN : 9782707345370
19.00 €
19 in-text illustrations
We park our cars, and we feel a sense of relief. But what if we were to set off again? We would risk losing our way. The sequence is sudden: … to park… to stray. Once out of the parking space, would we be hopelessly lost?
The French language asserts that there is nothing between the garage and straying, nothing save the vague expanse that sustains adventure.
To set oneself in motion, then, would be to go astray for sure, to wander beneath the sails of windmills, before giants, who knows.
Such straying might well frighten us.
Bertrand Westphal is a prominent scholar associated with the development of geocriticism, an approach that examines the complex relationships between literature, space, and geography. This field intersects with spatial literary studies and comparative literature, drawing on traditions of cultural geography to analyze how narrative texts represent places, borders, and human mobility. By questioning the boundaries between familiar environments and uncharted territories, this critical framework investigates the cultural meanings embedded in real and imagined landscapes, engaging with how writers map the physical world through language and artistic expression.
Readers interested in contemporary literary theory, cultural geography, and the spatial dimensions of narrative may find this study relevant to their inquiries.