Literary geography: rationales, approaches and emerging trends

Over the last forty years geographers from many traditions have resorted to literary sources in order to expand the usual scope of geographical research: regional geographers seeking for more evocative descriptions of people and place; humanistic geographers hoping to find vivid transcriptions of the experience of place and highlight the multifaceted dimensions of various authors sense of place; radical geographers looking for examples of spatial and social injustice. More recently, with the help of the "cultural turn" in the discipline, geography's analysis of literature is more plural than ever. Not only do interpretations vary along literary, political, class, gender, and racial lines, but a wider range of literary genres are being considered.

In this presentation Professor Marc Brosseau will critically assess the different rationales for geography's engagements with literature, the relative merits of its various approaches and identify some of the most promising emerging trends.

The speaker's biography can be found on the University of Ottawa website.