Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Section I Literature, Geography, Environment
- 1 Decolonizing the Map: Postcolonialism, Poststructuralism and the Cartographic Connection
- 2 Unsettled Settlers: Postcolonialism, Travelling Theory and the New Migrant Aesthetics
- 3 Postcolonial Geography, Travel Writing and the Myth of Wild Africa
- 4 ‘Greening’ Postcolonialism: Ecocritical Perspectives
- Section II Literature, Culture, Anthropology
- Section III Literature, History, Memory
- Index
1 - Decolonizing the Map: Postcolonialism, Poststructuralism and the Cartographic Connection
from Section I - Literature, Geography, Environment
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Section I Literature, Geography, Environment
- 1 Decolonizing the Map: Postcolonialism, Poststructuralism and the Cartographic Connection
- 2 Unsettled Settlers: Postcolonialism, Travelling Theory and the New Migrant Aesthetics
- 3 Postcolonial Geography, Travel Writing and the Myth of Wild Africa
- 4 ‘Greening’ Postcolonialism: Ecocritical Perspectives
- Section II Literature, Culture, Anthropology
- Section III Literature, History, Memory
- Index
Summary
We're not going to get away from structures. But we could do with some lithe, open, agile, portable structures, some articulating structures […] We can't all go to the same place […] we have to go together in different directions.
Robert Bringhurst, Pieces of Map, Pieces of MusicThe problem with maps is they take imagination. Our need for contour invents the curve, our demand for straight lines will have measurement laid out in bones. Direction rips the creel out of our hand. To let go now is to become air-borne, a kite, map, journey […]
Thomas Shapcott, ‘Maps’The fascination of Canadian, Australian and other postcolonial writers with the figure of the map has resulted in a wide range of literary responses both to physical (geographical) maps, which are shown to have operated effectively, but often restrictively or coercively, in the implementation of colonial policy, and to conceptual (metaphorical) maps, which are perceived to operate as exemplars of, and therefore to provide a framework for the critique of, colonial discourse. The exemplary role of cartography in the demonstration of colonial discursive practices can be identified in a series of key rhetorical strategies implemented in the production of the map, such as the reinscription, enclosure and hierarchization of space, which provide an analogue for the acquisition, management and reinforcement of colonial power. My initial focus in this chapter, however, will be on a further point of contact between cartography and colonialism, namely the procedures and implications of mimetic representation.
Mimesis, besides providing a theoretical basis for cartographic practice, based now as throughout much of the history of cartography on the possibility of producing a plausible reconstruction of a specific geographical environment, has proved through the ages to be a cornerstone of Western culture. Although the viability of mimetic representation has been repeatedly contested at least since the time of Plato, mimesis has consistently provided a means of promoting and reinforcing the stability of Western culture. Yet, as theorists of colonialism such as Homi Bhabha and Edward Said (among others) have shown, mimesis has also historically served the colonial discourse which justifies the dispossession and subjugation of so-called ‘non-Western’ peoples; for the representation of reality endorsed by mimesis is, after all, the representation of a particular kind or view of reality: that of the West.
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- Interdisciplinary MeasuresLiterature and the Future of Postcolonial Studies, pp. 21 - 33Publisher: Liverpool University PressPrint publication year: 2008