Space, Place and Story: Toward a Spatial Theory of Narrative Marie-Laure Ryan, marilaur@gmail.com Maoz Azaryahu, maoz.azaryahu@gmail.

com Kenneth E. Foote, k.foote@colorado.edu Ohio State University Press, in preparation.

1) Description This book focuses on the intersections of space and narrative, a topic which has generated much recent attention among narratologists, literary theorists, and cultural geographers. Though space has long been slighted in theories which have traditionally seen narrative as a temporal art, it is now gaining attention as far more than just a backdrop for plot. Theorists are now highlighting the critical role it plays in many types of narrative. This is especially true of contemporary digital, cybernetic, and virtual narratives in which time and space play complementary, if not equal roles. New studies of toponyms, the politics of place names, and the contestations over text inscribed on landscape all draw attention to the close connections between the lived and written worlds. Our book provides a synthesis of this recent research, but goes further. By tracing an arc from narratology and semiotics to geographic approaches to narrative, our aim is to bridge the gap between the these disciplines. We accomplish this by framing a more encompassing theory of spatial narrative, one in which space and narrative intersect not at a single point, but rather converge around four quite distinct themes, including: (1) Space as represented by a narrative at a variety of levels or scales. (2) The spatial references of the text, that is depiction, representation or implication of real space in narrative, i.e. location-specific content. (3) The spatial form of the text. (4) The space that serves as context and container for the text. Our writing "team" is unusual in that together we have written in all of the fields which bridge the fields of space and narrative--narratology, semiotics, cultural & human geography, electronic textuality, cyberculture, place-name geography, multimedia and hypermedia theory, literary theory, and landscape history. This means we can offer a strongly interdisciplinary perspective on these issues. 2) Audience We are writing for an academic audience in narratology, literary theory, cultural and human geography, cultural studies and semiotics. The interdisciplinary nature of the project, as well as its theoretical importance, should appeal to a wider audience than most academic monographs. Space, Place & Story | Page 1

3) Length and illustrations Our plan is nine chapters of approximately 10,000 words plus a bibliography for total count of about 100,000 words. The manuscript will include 30-40 black & white figures--maps, diagrams, and photographs which we believe are essential to arguing our case about the spatiality of narrative. We also plan to use 12-18 sidebars in the text to profile the writings of particular genres and authors which underscore the key points of our argument. 4) Schedule We would deliver the final manuscript 18 months after contract signing. 5) Biosketches & Curricula Vitae Marie-Laure Ryan is an independent scholar, currently Scholar in Residence in the English Department at the University of Colorado, who specializes in narrative theory and digital culture. Her interest in issues of spatiality is an outgrowth of her early work on narrative applications of possible worlds theory, as well as of her love of outdoors activities. After receiving a PhD in French literature and MAs in German and Linguistics from the University of Utah, she turned experience gained in the cubicles of the computer industry into a theoretical tool for the investigation of narrative design in computer games and other interactive applications. She is the author of Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence and Narrative Theory (Indiana 1991), which received the 1992 Prize for Independent Scholars from the Modern Language Association, of Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media (Johns Hopkins 2001), which received the 2001 Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literature Studies, also from the Modern Language Association, and of Avatars of Story: Narrative Modes in Old and New Media (Minnesota 2006). She has also edited Cyberspace Textuality: Computer Technology and Literary Theory (1999), Narrative Across Media (Nebraska 2004) and co-edited the Routledge Encyclopedia of Narrative Theory (Routledge 2005), with David Herman and Manfred Jahn. Web site: http://users.frii.com/mlryan/ Maoz Azaryahu is associate professor for cultural geography at the University of Haifa in Israel. His research focuses on urban and landscape semiotics as well as on the cultural and historical geographies of national myths and public memory in Israel and in Germany, landscapes of popular culture, the politics of street names and the cultural history of places and landscapes. His books include Von Wilhelmplatz zu Thaelmannplatz. Politische Symbole im Oeffentlichen Leben der DDR 1945-1985 (1991), State Cults. Celebrating Independence and Commemorating the Fallen in Israel 1948-1956 (1995), (Hebrew) and Tel Aviv: Mythography of a City (2006). Ken Foote is a professor of geography at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Much of his work focuses landscape symbolism and the semiotic aspects of the built environment. Many of his writings address the social and geographical dynamics of public memory and commemoration, especially the imprint of violence on landscape in the US and Europe. Some of Space, Place & Story | Page 2

his works in this area are Shadowed Ground: America's Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy (2003) and "Shadowed Ground, Sacred Place: Reflections on Violence, Tragedy, Memorials and Public Commemorative Rituals" (2010), "Memorialization of US College and University Tragedies: Spaces of Mourning and Remembrance" (in press, with Sylvia Grider) as well as articles he has co-authored with Maoz Azaryahu including "Historical Space as Narrative Medium: On the Configuration of Spatial Narratives of Time at Historical Sites" (2008) and "Toward a Geography of Memory: Geographical Dimensions of Public Memory and Commemoration" (2007). C.v. available online at: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/foote/resume/footeresume.pdf 6) Sample Chapters In lieu of sample chapters, we have included one book chapter and two article which capture, in part, some of the arguments of chapters 1, 6, and 7. These articles can be dowloaded from: http://www.colorado.edu/geography/foote/spatialnarrative/ Ryan, Marie-Laure (2009). Space. In Peter Hhn, ed., Handbook of Narratology, pp. 420-33. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Azaryahu, Maoz (1996). The power of commemorative street names. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 14 (3): 311-330. Azaryahu, Maoz and Kenneth E. Foote (2008). Historical space as narrative medium: On the configuration of spatial narratives of time at historical sites. GeoJournal 73 (3): 179-194. 7) Possible Reviewers In geography: (1) Paul Adams, Geography, University of Texas at Austin, paul.adams@austin.utexas.edu (2) Stuart Aitken, Geography, San Diego State University, saitken@mail.sdsu.edu (3) James Duncan, Geography, Cambridge University, james.duncan@geog.cam.ac.uk (4) J. Douglas Porteous, Department of Geography, University of Victoria, PO BOX 3060 STN CSC, Victoria, B.C., V8W 3R4, Canada (no email) (5) Jonathan M. Smith, Geography, Texas A&M University, jmsmith@tamu.edu (6) Leo Zonn, Geography, University of Texas at Austin, zonn@mail.utexas.edu In literature: (7) Karen Jacobs, English Department, University of Colorado at Boulder. Karen.Jacobs@colorado.edu (8) David Herman, English Department, Ohio State University. Herman145@osu.edu (9) Fotis Jannidis, Institut fr deutsche Philologie, Universitt Wrzburg. Germany fotis.jannidis@uni-wuerzburg.de In digital media: (10) Michael Nitsche, Georgia Tech University. michael.nitsche@lcc.gatech.edu

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8) Competing books While several books on narrative include a chapter on spatial representation (e. g. David Hermans Story Logic: Problems and Possibilities of Narrative (Nebraska 2002, chapter 7) or Rick Altman, A Theory of Narrative (Columbia 2008, chapters 6 and 8), the only one that has been entirely devoted to the spatial aspects of narrative is available only in German: Katrin Demmerlein, Narratologie des Raumes (De Gruyter, 2009). Demmerleins book is a thorough review of all the proposals made by narratologists concerning space, but it lacks the interdisciplinary scope of the present project. Joseph Franks The Idea of Spatial Form (reprint, Rutgers 1991) is a classic, but covers only one of the many aspects of narrative spatiality covered in chapter 4. Susan Stanford Friedmans Mappings (Princeton, 1998) uses cartographic concepts in such a metaphorical way that it cannot be compared to the literal approach of chapter 3. Considerable attention in geography and literary theory has focused on the issue of sense of place and space in literature. Works in this area include Leonard Lutwack's The Role of Place in Literature (Syracuse, 1984); William E. Mallory and Paul Simpson-Housley's Geography and Literature (Syracuse, 1987); Douglas C.D. Pocock's Humanistic Geography and Literature: Essays on Experience of Place (Barnes and Noble, 1981); J. Douglas Porteous Landscapes of the Mind: Worlds of Sense and Metaphor (Toronto, 1990); Frederick Turner's Spirit of Place: The Making of an American Literary Landscape (Sierra Club, 1989); Raymond Williams's classic The Country and the City (Chatto and Windus, 1973); and Stephen Siddall's Landscape and Literature (Cambridge, 2009). Writers themselves have addressed this topic, for example in Margaret Drabble's A Writer's Britain: Landscape in Literature (Thames and Hudson, 1979); Alfred Kazin's A Writer's America: Landscape in Literature (Knopf, 1988); and Barry Lopez's Home Ground: Language for an American Landscape (Trinity, 2006). From this perspective, fiction and non-fiction provide a means of exploring how writers and their subjects create and express affective bonds with environment, both positive and negative. Most interest has concentrated largely on the use of landscape and environmental features as symbolic elements within narrative; the creation of entirely imaginary worlds such as Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County and Tolkien's Middle Earth; and the use of setting as metaphor and allegory. This is an important issue which we address in chapter 2. Our aim, however, is not to inventory the many ways in which space and place are depicted, but rather to analyze the spatial frame of narrative across several scales (setting, story space, narrative/story world and narrative universe). Our goal is then is to synthesize this literature within a broader concept of spatial narrative. Although geographers have begun to address some of these issues in books such as Trevor Barnes and James Duncan's edited Writing Worlds: Discourse, Text, and Metaphor in the Representation of Landscape (Routledge, 1992), James Duncan and David Ley's edited and Place/culture/representation (Routledge, 1993) and even Duncan's The City as Text (Cambridge, revised 2004) there are no competing volumes on spatial narrative in geography.

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Space, Place and Story: Toward a Spatial Theory of Narrative Marie-Laure Ryan, Maoz Azaryahu, and Kenneth E. Foote Table of contents Chapter 1. Introduction: Narrative Theory and Space 2. Narrative Spaces and the Symbolic Topographies of Storyworlds 3. Narrative Cartography 4. The Spatial Form of Texts 5. Space, Narrative, and Digital Media 6. Toponyms as Stories 7. Landscape Narratives: Stories Told in Space and Place 8. Interior Spaces and Narrative: Museums and Visitor Centers 9. Conclusion: The Way Forward

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Space, Place and Story: Toward a Spatial Theory of Narrative Marie-Laure Ryan, Maoz Azaryahu, and Kenneth E. Foote Chapter overviews Chapter 1: Introduction: Narrative Theory and Space The intersections of space and narrative have generated much recent attention. Though space has long been slighted in narrative theories, it is now gaining attention as far more than just a backdrop for plot. Theorists now recognize that narrative is more than a temporal art and are beginning to highlight the critical role of space in many types of narrative. This is especially true of contemporary digital, cybernetic, and virtual narratives in which time and space play complementary, if not equal roles. In addition to recent work by narratologists and literary theorists, cultural geographers have become interested in the narrativization of space. Recent research on toponyms, commemorative place names, the politics of place, and landscape history all draw attention to the close connections between lived and written or visually represented worlds. This recent rise in interest has, however, has not been without its problems. With research approaching these issues from such different disciplinary perspectives, scholars sometimes seem to be working at cross purposes. The objective of our book is not only to provide a synthesis of these interdisciplinary approaches, but to outline a more encompassing theory of spatial narrative. We see space and narrative intersecting not at in single point, but rather converging around four quite distinct themes: (1) Space as represented by a narrative at a variety of levels or scales, from the micro-level of the Spatial frame, through the levels of Setting, Story space, and Narrative (or story) world, up to the level of the encompassing Narrative universe. The spatial levels must also be considered from the perspective of the cognitive/mental maps created by readers. (2) The spatial references in the text, that is the depiction, representation or implication of real space in narrative, i.e. location-specific content. This theme has been of particular interest to geographers who have long explored the issue of "landscape in literature" and how sense of place and space is are created through narrative. Here we could also mention phenomena such as myth and legends that relate to real-world locations and even connections between fictional characters and real-world places, such as Hamlets castle in Denmark or Reichenbach Falls in Switzerland where Sherlock Holmes fell to his death, only to be resurrected later. (3) The spatial form of the text which has been approached in several ways. It can be seen as a type of internal organization of narrative, corresponding to the particular graphic shape through which the story can be represented on a diagram. It can be seen in terms of dimensionality of its material inscription from the one-dimensional form of text messages to the three-dimensional form of interactive, immersive media. Finally, it can be approached as a network of relations

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between its components that can be represented as a map (cf. the maps of hypertexts and of web sites). (4) The space that serves as context and container for the text. Narratives and text are inscribed in the real world all around us. Toponyms, commemorative place names, stories inscribed on plaques at historical sites, and signs pointing out sights at tourist destinations all raise the interesting issue of how text is linked to real-world places. Again, this has been a particular focus of cultural geographers and others focusing on the social, cultural and political forces manifest in the application of text to place. This chapter outlines these basic points from a historical and interdisciplinary perspective and describes how each theme will be addressed in subsequent chapters. The earlier chapters deal mostly with fictional stories, while the later chaptersthe geographic onesare concerned with historical narratives. Chapter 2: Narrative Spaces and the Symbolic Topographies of Storyworlds Most definitions of narrative, by characterizing stories as the representation of sequences of events, foreground time at the expense of space. Events, however, are changes of state that affect individual existents. Insofar as these existents inhabit bodies, they both occupy space and are situated in space. All narratives therefore imply a world with spatial extension, even when spatial information is withheld. Adopting a mainly cognitive perspective, this chapter will cover the following space-related issues: (1) What is narrative space? Several layers of spatiality will be distinguished, from the micro to the macro level: spatial framesthe individual scenes of action (e.g. the bedroom, the garden); settingthe general socio-historico-geographic environment in which the action takes place (e.g. Dublin, working-class neighborhood); storyworldthe construction by the reader of a global, relatively homogeneous world serving as container for the characters and events; narrative universean even wider construct comprising not only the world presented as actual by the text but all the counterfactual and imaginary worlds contemplated by the characters. Here we draw examples from a wide range of literatures to illustrate how writers of both fiction and non-fiction create these layers and how they are juxtaposed. (2) How does narrative organize symbolically the topography of the storyworld? At one end of the spectrum we have stories that focus on networks of human relations and could take place on an empty, never changing plateau. At the other end, we find stories of travel and heroic deeds whose setting is a symbolic geography diversified into regions where different events and experiences take placewhere life, in other words, is governed by different physical, psychological, social or cultural rules. In fairy tales or computer games, for instance, symbolic topography may associate the castle with power, mountain tops with confrontations between the forces of good and evil, open areas with danger, closed areas with security, etc. This type of structuration turns the storyworld into a playfield divided into strategic zones, and the plot into a game-like itinerary through these zones that produces, in the end, winners and losers. Again, as

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in the first section of this chapter, a wide range of examples are used to illustrate how these topographies are defined. (3) Thematization of space. This section will ask how space is experienced emotionally by the characters. Possibilities include: closed and confining space (prison narratives), closed and protective spaces (stories conveying a nostalgic sense of place); open and liberating spaces (narratives of exploration; many travel narratives), open and alienating spaces (stories of wandering aimlessly in a hostile environment). Another form of thematization is play with scale (stories of featuring protagonists whose bodies grow or shrink out of human proportions). This is an issue which has attracted interest in geography, particularly studies of senses of place and placelessness and the issue of landscape and place depicted in literature. Chapter 3: Narrative Cartography This chapter focuses on four key issues in the relationship between maps and narrative. (1) How can space be represented by language, a temporal medium that lacks the simultaneity of visual media? Answering this question amounts to investigating techniques of description. Two main strategies of spatial representation will be discussed: the map and the tour. In the map strategy, space is represented panoramically from a perspective ranging from the disembodied gods eye point of view of pure vertical projection to the broad vision of an observer situated on an elevated point while, in the tour strategy, space is represented dynamically from the horizontal point of view of a moving character. Correlations will be established between these two strategies and the narratological issue of focalization, which centers on the question: who sees. (2) How narrative uses graphic maps to complement the techniques in (1) when the formation of a mental representation of space is particularly crucial. (3) How do readers construct mental maps of the storyworld? In order to follow the narrative action, readers must be able to visualize individual scenes and to connect them to each other. This activity requires knowledge of certain crucial spatial relations. When the topography of the narrative world is of prime importance for the understanding of plot, narratives often complement the verbal description of space with graphic maps which offer to the reader what language cannot: a simultaneous, birds eye view perception of the storyworld. In most cases, however, readers must rely on memory to construct mental models of narrative space. But texts are too rich in spatial information for readers to remember it all; mental maps are therefore very selective and incomplete. In this chapter we will ask: on what kind of narrative information are mental maps based? How do mental maps contribute to immersion? How much indeterminacy can they tolerate? Is it necessary to construct a global map of the storyworld, or can readers achieve a reasonable comprehension of plot on the basis of individual visualizations, or partial maps, without having to situate these partial maps with respect to each other? (4) How maps (i.e. not maps in literary texts, but regular maps of the world) tell stories. Here we are focusing especially on thematic cartography with examples drawn from newspapers, the

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popular media, and other sources. Also considered are maps, atlases, and cartographic narratives which use text, maps, and graphics to represent space and place. Chapter 4: The Spatial Form of Texts This chapter will investigate ways of constructing narrative meaning that do not derive from the literal spatiality of the represented world, i.e. of the signified, but from the metaphorical spatiality of the representing discourse (the signifier) and of the mode of representation. Several types of spatial form will be distinguished and discussed: (1) Spatial form as a type of internal organization of narrative, corresponding to the particular graphic shape through which the story can be represented on a diagram. The possibilities include: a linear organization following the destiny of a single character; a parallel organization made of several entangled plot lines; a recursive organization of embedded (or piled up) stories; a tree-like, branching structure representing alternative developments out of a given situation; and a hypertextual, i.e. networked structure, allowing several different traversals through a narrative database. (2) Spatial form as the dimensions of the material inscription of narrative discourse, and the management of these dimensions for the creation of meaning. The possibilities range from a purely temporal manifestation to one, two or three spatial dimensions. Oral narrative will be discussed as a combination of zero-dimensional/three dimensional space. Here the discourse presents a purely temporal, ephemeral dimensionit is not inscribedand the effects it relies on are prosodic rather than visual. Yet every act of oral storytelling is performed by an embodied narrator situated in real space, and the purely temporal/prosodic resources of the discourse are supplemented by a corporeal languagegestures, facial expressionsthat take advantage of the three dimensionality of the space occupied by the body. One-dimensionality is found in stories told through cell-phone texting and twitter posts, and two-dimensionality in page-based narrative, by far the richest category to be discussed in this chapter. Three-dimensionality, a concept which can be interpreted either literally or figuratively, will be illustrated by a variety of phenomena: the distribution of narrative content over several different material supports, as when a book-based story is supplemented by a web site or CD ROM; writing projects relying on digital technology that attempts to create a impression of depth, such as the CAVE project at Brown university; online worlds using 3D graphics, such as World of Warcraft, virtual globes like Google Earth, and the exploitation of space in the theater. (The most important form of three-dimensionality however is the anchoring of narrative in real space, a topic that will be treated in the next chapters.) (3) Spatial form as a network of internal relations. This aspect of narrative corresponds to what the literary critic Joseph Frank had in mind when he introduced the term of spatial form to describe a type of narrative organization characteristic of modernism that deemphasizes temporality and causality through compositional devices such as fragmentation, montage of heterogeneous elements, and juxtaposition of contrasting scenes. Franks concept of spatial form can be extended to any kind of design formed by semantic, phonetic, or more broadly thematic relations between non-adjacent textual units, or between temporally separated events. The Space, Place & Story | Page 9

spatiality of these designs is purely metaphorical, since they are not systems of individual physical positions, but webs of analogical or oppositional relations which can only be perceived if the mind is able to move through the text in all directions, as does a wanderer in physical space. Chapter 5: Space, Narrative, and Digital Media Ever since the term cyberspace was borrowed from William Gibsons novel Neuromancer to refer to the alleged place that we reach through the Internet, we have developed the habit of thinking of computers as machines that take us into a separate realitya domain conceived in terms of spatial metaphors. In this chapter we will explore new forms of narrative that rely on the spatial practices made possible by digital technology. Four of these practices have had a particular impact on narrative: (1) Spatial form in multimedia, hypermedia, and geomedia; (2) virtual world creation; (3) alternative reality gaming; (4) locative technologies. (1) Spatial form in multimedia, hypermedia, and geomedia. Increasingly, text, audio, video, graphics, maps, and real-time data are being linked in cyberspace creating complex assemblages. These sometimes have clear networks of internal relationships, but are often complex, opaque, or purposely ambiguous. In his Reinventing Comics, Scott McCloud's introduces the notion of drawing/writing stories on an "infinite canvas" which can be shaped in any direction to support or frame a narrative. (2) Digital virtual worldssuch as the text-based social spaces known as MOOs and MUDs, the worlds of single-player video games, or the web-based worlds of multi-player gamesare not in themselves narratives (a world, at most, is a setting, not a story), but they forms the stage for a variety of potential stories. It is up to the visitors to perform actions and to gather experiences which, when retold or merely remembered, fulfill the basic conditions of narrativity: a sequence of events which brings change to a world. Some game worlds (World of Warcraft) contain builtin narrative scenarios, known as quests, for the player to perform, while others (Second Life) are empty space which players fill with their own creations, using the tools provided by the system. These creations can be used as props in a game of make-believe which occasionally result in tellable stories. In this chapter we explore the following issues: the various types of narrative architecture (Henry Jenkins term) that structure the space of virtual worlds (i.e. what kinds of stories lend themselves to active participation by the player), the experience of spatial immersion created by the basic game activities of travel and exploration; the modes of navigation (teleporting vs. traversing the virtual world point by point), the little stories embedded in virtual worlds in the form of folklore, gossip and backstory, the role of these stories in creating an emotional attachment to the virtual world, the development of a sense of place through the acquisition of land and the building and furnishing of virtual homes, the exploitation of virtual land for commercial purposes, the development of a currency and an economy that support these practices; and the ensuing destabilization of the boundaries between work and play, makebelieve and serious activity, fiction and reality. (3) Another new form of connection between space and narrative that owes its current popularity to digital technology is Alternative Reality Gaming (ARG). The term refers to a type of game Space, Place & Story | Page 10

that invites players to solve fictional mysteries, but rather than locating the clues to these events within a computer-generated virtual world, as is the case with standard video games, ARGs disseminate the clues throughout the real world, if by real world one understands both physical reality and the various systems of information contained in it. Clues may take the form of messages hidden in a Web site that seems to be designed for commercial purposes, of e-mails sent to the players, of phone numbers to call, of SMS messages, or they may be revealed through conversations between the players and actors planted in the world by the organizers. It has been said that ARGs undermine the distinction between fiction and reality, but the lack of formal boundaries between the real world and the playfield means on the contrary that in order to play ARGs successfully, players must be able to isolate the fictional information relevant to the story from the mass of data that exists independently of the game. (4) The final topic to be addressed in this chapter is the narrative use of locative media, such as wireless computers, GPS, GIS and mobile phones. These technologies have given new impetus to the age-old practice of telling stories that refer to specific locations in the real world. In contrast to print-based writing, locative technologies makes content easily accessible from the site that functions as real-world referent, and in contrast to oral storytelling on location, they give permanence to this content. The purpose of this digital graffiti, as it has been called, can be practical as well as artistic, historical or even fictional: for instance, location-based messages could explore the history of a site, advise prospective visitors about coming events, allow the inhabitants of a neighborhood to share their experience of the place, or even retell the events of a famous novel whose plot took place in the area. Thanks to locative technology, it becomes possible to fill the world with stories without having to display these messages on concrete objects that alter the landscape. Another widely practiced form of location-based storytelling replaces actual space with the virtual space of Web-based map on which users or developers place clickable tags to signal locations connected to content. In this chapter we will examine a variety of projects in location-specific storytelling that challenge the boundary between documentary and art. Chapter 6: Toponyms as Stories One of the most powerful uses of text lies in its application to real places and spaces. Names and the nomenclatures they belong to occupy a central place in any cultural system. The shaping or reshaping of sets of toponyms is a profound example of the connection between linguistic, social, political and cultural processes. Place-names belong to the cultural and historical geographies of landscapes and territories and to the political geographies of power and dissent. From a semiotic perspective, toponyms signify social and political ideologies and myths. A semiotic approach to the study of toponyms highlights their formation in specific political and social contexts. It sheds light on the ideological dimensions of (re)naming procedures and on the belonging of place-names to discourses of identity. Although an extensive literature has developed around the history and politics of placenames, the first part of this chapter will focus especially on three interrelated themes. (1) Place, symbol, and myth. Place names are, for example, laden with the reputation(s) of the places they denote. The name Las Vegas both denotes a city in Nevada and conjures its Space, Place & Story | Page 11

reputation as Sin City. The name New York City conjures its reputation as a vibrant metropolis that never sleeps. In some cases place names associate events, such as Waterloo (a battle, 1814) or Yalta (a conference, 1943). The symbolic meanings associated with place names are historically dynamic; place names may acquire new connotations, while older ones may lose their power of evocation. (2) Place names and the language of modern nationalism. In a nationalist context, the reference to places by certain names not only acknowledges these places as constituents of the physical world, but also evinces nationalist assumptions and arguments. This is especially significant when different nomenclatures compete for recognition as legitimate and definitive, as is the case with contested areas. The use of place-names and the rejection of others is a feature of a conflict. For instance designating a place as Yarzum (Spanish) or Oiartzun (Basque) is a political statement in the context of the Basque struggle for independence. (3) Naming and renaming places is a taxonomic measure that entails the notion of appropriation and norming. It is a by-product of exploration as well as (re)settlement activities. It is also an aspect of nation-building. In Greece after 1830 Turkish, Slavic and Italian place names were Hellenized, after 1867 it was also practiced in Hungary, and after 1918 also in the new states founded in central and eastern Europe. Reshaping toponyms is also an aspect of post-colonial situations, when changes of place-names proclaim the rejection of colonial history by a return to pre-colonial names. Thus Leopoldsville, the capital of Belgian Congo became Kinshasa, the capital of Zaire. Recently Bombay was renamed Mumbai. The second part of chapter is dedicated to commemorative street names as a city-text and to the narrative properties of this text. The spatial configuration of commemorative street names in a city defines a particular city-text that, as a semiotic feature of the city, presents a particular mapping of urban space and historical time. Constantly written and eventually over-written, citytext is the sum of additions and erasures; in this sense it is a palimpsest. Writing a city-text is a prolonged process that conflates urban contingencies, ideological concerns and political interests. As a particular geography of public memory, a city-text represents not only a version of history but also commemorative priorities and hegemonic discourses of former periods. For instance, former communist majorities are still reflected in the street names of Parisian suburbs and Italian towns. A city-text is not intended to be read as an entirety, and its eventual reading as a text does not involve any obligation to a prescribed order. In principle, a city-text is a spatially configured register of historical figures and events. It is a disorderly representation of history rather than a coherent historical account. The spatial organization of street names does not produce any significant linear order, and the intersection of streets does not necessarily imply any temporal or thematic relationship between their names. Such intersections, however, may suggest imaginary encounters that are sometimes weighed down with irony. A fundamental property of a city-text is that it lacks a built-in time arrow, and hence chronology. Historical figures and events coexist simultaneously, and one cannot make a distinction between before and after. A city-text lacks the narrative structure of the conventional historical account found in text books and films. It does not provide its readers with a chronological narrative of history, but rather with an authorized index of a putative narrative, notwithstanding the lack of historical villains. The index of a city Space, Place & Story | Page 12

map is an exact reproduction of the city-text as it mentions all the names that appear on the map. The alphabetical order of this index implies neither spatial nor temporal order, but is essential for using street names as geographical designations that provide for spatial orientation, which is, after all, considered to be their primary function. Chapter 7: Landscape Narratives: Stories Told in Space and Place This chapter examines how narratives are, so to speak, "draped" across the large-scale landscapes of historical and tourism sites, along pilgrimage and tour routes, and in similar places. Rather than the application of text as a toponym, landscape narratives are created to tell stories with the text divided into pieces which are placed or sequenced around a particular environment. In a sense, the "setting" of the narrative is its real setting creating a direct connection between narrative and space. Drawing on some of our earlier work (Azaryahu and Foote 2008), we focus on a number of narrative strategies which are frequently used to configure stories in space. (1) Declamatory strategies. This is a common strategy which involves telling a story from a single point in space. Events and stories are reduced to brief inscriptions often in formal or formulaic prose. The text at such sites is often set off from its surrounding by fence or wall, or with gates sometimes used to separate the narrative space from the surrounding area. (2) Linear and Sequential Chronologies Linking Space and Time. Time and space are sometimes narrated linearly along trails or paths with clear starting and ending points and a chronological progression from point-to-point along the way. Gates are sometimes used to indicate the start and end of the spatial narrative and fences, paths and borders help maintain sequence. Some sites invite visitors to begin anywhere along a route, others have a single entry point and fixed order. Choices about the flexibility of routes are integral to the spatial narrative itself. If, for example, visitors are free to visit sites nonsequentially or to skip sections of spatial narrative, then repetition or overlap of content is needed from site-to-site. Rigid control of visitors is nearly impossible over larger sites. (a) Time and Space Linked Sequentially along a Route or Trail. Among the most common instances are those like the stations of the cross in Jerusalem in which time and space are linked sequentially in an order specific to a particular event. Some of the best examples are the marking of paths, trails, routes and journeys. The Mormon Trail is an example extending over a larger area and period linking many towns and cities. (b) Sequential Temporal Narratives Imposed on Space. Sometimes chronological stories are used to link places which are not ordered in strict sequence. Perhaps the most common examples of this type of spatial narrative are tours developed around the life and work of famous individuals. In these cases, the chronology of the individual's life provide the basic structure of the spatial narrative, usually punctuated spatially with visits to the sites of important life events including, most commonly, birth, death and burial. (3) Complex Sequences over Large Areas or Long Periods. Among the most difficult stories to configure spatially are are those involving actions over large areas or long periods of time; a Space, Place & Story | Page 13

large number of simultaneous events over wide areas; and complex spatial and temporal interactions within the overall event. These are stories that revolve around large battles and military campaigns; major social, economic or political and cultural transformations like the rise and fall of U.S. slavery. In all of these cases, no one point, path or trail provides an effective spatial perspective for narrating the story. Great simplification is often required both in how the story is told and how it is arranged in space--time or space is shortened, concatenated, compressed, lengthened, embellished, straightened, or smoothed. (a) Geographical Point-to-Point Narrative of Significant Places. By geographical, we mean a story told from a series of vista or vantage points, with one element of a story told at each point, but not in strict chronological order. (b) Chronological Narrative of Significant Moments. Just as geographical narrative allows a story to be simplified by moving from place-to-place, chronological narrative simplifies temporal and spatial complexity by presenting a chronological sequence of an event's highlights and significant moments along a trail. (c) Thematic Narratives. A thematic approach to the construction of spatial narratives serves both to highlight and to separate issues, periods and perspectives while maintaining that they belong to one and the same story. Weaving spatial narratives around a theme--the participants, causes, ideas, consequences, periods or lessons--amounts to telling these elements of the story separately in space. This approach does not preclude using geography or chronology as an organizing principle for arranging the spatial narrative, but these are subordinate to the theme (4) Hybrid Narrative Strategies. Narrative strategies of the sort listed above are sometimes used in hybrid combinations, as at Arlington National Cemetery just across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The cemetery's history and meaning are complex--an estate confiscated at the start of the American Civil War from confederate general Robert E. Lee and then used as a Union burial ground, but now the major shrine of national heroes. At Arlington, some markers are declamatory--they announce the sinking of the U.S.S. Maine in Havana harbor in 1898 to start the Spanish-American war or the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988--but others are connected by trails that focus on the cemetery's history and themes. Chapter 8: Interior Spaces and Narrative: Museums and Visitor Centers Whereas the previous chapter focused on narratives arranged at a large scale across space and place, this chapter concentrates on how narratives are arranged spatial at the meso or micro scales around and within buildings such as museums and on-site visitor centers. Notably, the story told can be at the macro scale and span continent(s) e.g. the Holocaust or the Imperial War Museum. What distinguishes museums and visitor centers is that they are built and designed as narrative spaces, where architecture, display and story-telling are entwined in the experience they offer to visitors. Museums and visitor centers allow complex chronological or thematic narratives to be told with the assistance of text, audio-visual aids, artifacts, and human guides in a carefully controlled setting. In fact, many modern designs for museums and memorials blur Space, Place & Story | Page 14

somewhat the distinctions between traditional museum displays and the sites and events they interpret. At the same time, stories told in museums and visitor centers are not usually constrained by the same spatial or temporal realities as narratives told at the sites themselves, where 'facts on the ground' have to be taken into account an be integrated into the local narrative. The display space is designed to tell an interpretive story of events and processes. Designers of historical museums translate 'scripts' into spatial and material forms. The geometric layout of the display converts historical time into spatial arrangement of themes and sequences, where movement often corresponds to progression in time. With historical time and space compressed to the space coordinates of the display and the time of a visit, historical museum offers the experience of a 'journey through time' that takes place in a controlled environment created by curators and designers. Chapter 9: Conclusion: The Way Forward The conclusion stresses the benefits of a collaboration between narratology and geography and what they have to learn from each other. We will highlight some particularly promising areas of future investigation where these disciplinary perspectives intersect.

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