In Monopoli, Italy, today to present a tentative classification of functions of literary space. Wide array of presentations on rhythm, speed and path at the ENN7 / 7th conference of the European Narratology Network. Looking forward also to participate in the co-located IGLE conference, conference of the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature.

In my presentation, I continue earlier work on the city novel and toponyms in literature. In brief, I note that – despite a long-lived spatial turn – questions of space have remained relatively marginalized and theoretically underdeveloped. A classification of spatial markers in literature would include a keen attentiveness to the dynamic interaction between space and character, space and plot, and character and plot. It should also aim to incorporate processes of mapping within the narration, as well as the rhetorical interaction between spatial markers and (embodied and embedded readerly responses).

Abstract below:

Functions of Literary Space: Tentative Classifications

This paper examines the functions of spatial markers and locations in literature, and considers several tentative qualifications for the study of literary space. A first classification draws on James Phelan’s character classification of synthetic, mimetic, and thematic functions to examine the functions of literary spaces. A second classification (building on earlier work by the author on the city novel) pairs literary space with plot development and character development in a dynamic model in which all three influence upon each other, enabling the fulfilment (or thwarting) of their respective affordances. A third classification proposes an allegorical reading, in which functions of literary space can be read respectively as referential, allegorical, moral, spiritual, or metafictional. A fourth and final classification distinguishes between functions within the text and rhetorical functions, in which spatial markers act not as real-world referents, or as functions within the storyworld, but as activating associations within readers in ways that are highly contingent. I will consider these tentative classifications and their practical application by drawing on the work of French-Canadian author Nicolas Dickner, in particular his novels Nikolski (2005), Tarmac (2009), and Six degrés de liberté (2015). One aim is to move beyond spatial markers as statical elements of description, and to foreground instead the functions of dynamic spatial trajectories, spatial transgressions, and dynamic meshworks of spatial nodes.