Storied Cities

Geocriticism and Literary Cartography about Real Places

Abstract

The intention of this discussion is to explore how a sense of place can emerge when narrative inclusions are aligned to topographical mapping to create literary cartography artefacts after a geocritical review of a real place: Walyalup/Fremantle, Western Australia. This discussion will explore the underlying methodology of geocriticism (Tally Jr. 2013; Westphal 2011) applied through experimental mapping processes (De Nardi 2014; Pearce 2008; Powell 2010) to construct narrative maps that offer perspectives on how Walyalup/Fremantle’s districts have distinct thematic patterns emerging from the geocritical review and can be used to support the creative writing of real places. The district covered here is the West End, which also was the original location of the Swan River Colony and represents interesting collisions between the past and the present. This district is then used with an excerpt of creative writing to demonstrate the application of this model. The larger intention of this analysis is the development of literary cartographic maps to be utilised in a place-based creative writing project that intends to contribute to the storied history already in existence in Walyalup/Fremantle.