How to work with Mapping Writing
Becoming a Contributor ............................................................................................. 2
1. Data for Mapping Writing ..................................................................................... 2
1.1. Parsing the data ............................................................................................... 2
1.2. Collecting the data prior to entry .................................................................... 2
1.3. Entering data to Mapping Writing .................................................................. 3
1.4. Sequencing data .............................................................................................. 3
1.5. Finding named places ..................................................................................... 3
1.6 Adding a new named and real place to the gazetteer, and fine-tuning the coordinates ................................................................................................................. 4
1.7. Adding a new fictitious named place. ............................................................. 4
2. Kinds of Displays ................................................................................................... 5
2.1. Primary Display .............................................................................................. 5
2.2 Journeys or Narratives ..................................................................................... 5
Specimen Table Format ............................................................................................. 6
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How to work with Mapping Writing
Becoming a Contributor
To be a contributor, you will need a Literary Encyclopedia user identity. Please click
on the following link and make a user account. Please complete the first two pages
and do not neglect to enter your forename(s), surname (and institutional address if
any) as these will appear in the by-line of the contributions you make. If your
university is a subscriber to The Literary Encyclopedia, please use your institutional
email address.
Login to Mapping Writing with the username and password you have created for The
Literary Encyclopedia and then click on Apply. A message will be sent to the
relevant editor and once your application has been approved you will be notified and
will be able to start making pins. As you make each pin, your editor will be sent an
email so she or he can check your work.
1. Data for Mapping Writing
1.1. Parsing the data
The basic datum of a literary or cultural map is
the map pin which relates a place to certain kinds of information
the passage which represents it
the text which contains the passage (title, publisher, year of publication)
the time of the representation according to the text
metadata which is useful for cataloguing (country of origin, date of first publication,
genre of text, gender of author). In most cases this will be derived from the file in The
Literary Encyclopedia .
Please note also that a) nearly every mention of a place since c. 1650 will also be
related to a particular time (which may be stated or implied – e.g. “three weeks
later”), and that sometimes a place is implied rather than mentioned explicitly (for
example, London as a point of departure and return in the voyages of Robinson
Crusoe). Where a place is implied, it may be necessary to create a pin so as to have a
terminus for a journey (see under “journeys” below) even when the text does not
explicitly mention the place.
1.2. Collecting the data prior to entry
It may be useful to use a table form in a word-processor or spread-sheet to collect
basic data as one reads the text, then open the interface and add the data to Mapping
Writing. This two-step procedure tends to assist the contributor in checking that all
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How to work with Mapping Writing
the information is to hand and correctly located. It is not necessary, however, to
complete mapping a whole work in a single session; completing the work in several
different sessions is usually more pleasing.
There is a specimen table format at the end of this document.
1.3. Entering data to Mapping Writing
The application has been designed to step you through in an intuitive manner. Select
your Work and then select under the Works menu the option to “Add or view all
representations.” Click on the option to “Add a representation” and follow the
prompts.
1.4. Sequencing data
The default sequence of entries is the sequence in which they are entered, which will
usually be the sequence in which they occur in the text. Since some pages may
mention or represent more than one place, page numbers are not good enough for this
sequencing and the system adds a sequence number. If you wish to change the
sequence after creating pins, please use the Edit screen and just drag and drop the
items you wish to move.
Please also note the point about implied places as mentioned in 1.) above.
1.5. Finding named places
After you have made the initial record of the textual information, the application asks
you to choose if the place is
 Real
 Real under a fictitious name (for example, Dorchester is called Casterbridge
by Thomas Hardy)
 Fictitious, but either exactly or approximately locatable.
If the place is Real you are given the option to search our gazetteer and chose the
named place. This process works for all major places of habitation, and even some
named buildings, but if it does not then please find the real place by using one of the
following tips, or using the procedure outlined in 1.6 below:
A. Tips for finding Digital Latitude and Longitude for places using
Google Maps:
Go to http://www.maps.google.com
Enter the address you wish to pin. For example, “39 Wish Street, Southsea,
Portsmouth.”
Click to search.
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How to work with Mapping Writing
Right click on the balloon marker
Click “What’s here” and the Latitude and Longitude appear in the search box
above the map, in the form 50.787489,-1.078123 (Lat first, Long second).
Note that if the place is not found, the balloon will change in its appearance –
round if a near match, yellow if not a match. Sometimes finding old place
names needs a little diligence. Google will often come up with a helpful
suggestion if the spelling has changed.
[Note that places west of Greenwich or south of the equator are prefaced with
a minus sign.]
B: Tips for Wikipedia
If found in Wikipedia, you will usually see that the geographical co-ordinates
are given in the degrees and minutes in the right-margin. If you click on these
co-ordinates, you will be taken to the Geo-Hack server which will give you
the digital values. For example, Jefferson’s house at Monticello in Virginia is
38.010281, -78.4523.
1.6 Adding a new named and real place to the gazetteer, and finetuning the co-ordinates
You can add a new real place to our gazetteer by using the “manually add coordinates” option. If you use the procedure in 1.5 to find the place, then all you need
to do is enter the digital latitude and longitude. The application will then show you a
map pin which you can move hither and thither until you have exactly the right place.
Click to save this data.
Note it is possible to use Google maps to help fine-tune the location of a particular
building or spot: go to maps.google.com and enter the latitude (N or S of equator) and
then the longitude (E or W of Greenwich) in the search box (for example, “51.478,0.002” will give you the Greenwich meridian as it passes through the Greenwich
observatory. Use minus signs to indicate east of Greenwich or south of the equator.
Once you are happy with the data, copy into Mapping Writing.
1.7. Adding a new fictitious named place.
Where a text uses fictitious names, it may be possible to locate them precisely (E.g.
Hardy uses Casterbridge for Dorchester; George Eliot’s “Middlemarch” is generally
agreed to be Coventry) or approximately by guess work (e.g. places mentioned as near
Middlemarch).
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How to work with Mapping Writing
2. Kinds of Displays
2.1. Primary Display
The primary display shows all the places mentioned in the text showing their
numerical sequence.
2.2 Journeys or Narratives
Journeys and narratives are two kinds of chronology which may exist within a text.
The distinction between a journey and a narrative is not hard-and-fast since all
journeys in a textual representation are also narratives. The intended distinction is
between representations which are primarily focused on travel, and representations
which happen to include travel (i.e. where the travel aspect is incidental to the
narrative). In the former, the narrative will be entirely governed by the sequence of
places visited.
The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe provides a good example of journeys, since the
work is composed of Crusoe’s relation of eight distinct journeys. Daniel Deronda
provides a good example of a work where narratives are to the fore since Eliot’s novel
begins in a casino in Neubronn, Germany, where Deronda first sees Gwendolen
Harleth. Over the next several hundred pages the novel will narrate how both
characters came to be there. In neither narrative is the journey of other than incidental
interest, although the fact that they go there is. Similarly, one might consider
Elizabeth Bennett’s journey to Darcy’s home at “Pemberley” in Derbyshire where the
place and their meeting is significant but the route taken to get there is not.
To map journeys and narratives, use the chronology option to create a narrative,
then allocate to it the map pins which have already been added to the Primary
Display.
Please also note the point about implied places as mentioned in 1.) above.
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How to work with Mapping Writing
Specimen Table Format
Place
DATE
begins
Format:
Yyyy-mmdd
Short Headline
for pin
Quotation
Page Comme
no.
nt (if
any)
[delete this
and the
next row
which are
provided
by way of
example]
1632
Birth of Crusoe
I was born in the year 1632, in
the city of York, of a good
family, though not of that
country, my father being a
foreigner of Bremen, who
settled first at Hull. He got a
good estate by merchandise,
and leaving off his trade, lived
afterwards at York, from
whence he had married my
mother, whose relations were
named Robinson, a very good
family in that country, and
from whom I was called
Robinson Kreutznaer; but, by
the usual corruption of words
in England, we are now called
- nay we call ourselves and
write our name - Crusoe; and
so my companions always
called me.
3
York
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