Discussion Group: Maps of the word: topographies and topoi of world literature
Monday 2 November 2026
12:45 - 14:00
Seminar Room 10, St Anne's College
Mary Orsak (Oxford), Theo Barnett (Oxford)
Following last term’s discussion on the theme What is World Literature? (Trinity 2026), this week we reconvene to discuss topographical perspectives on world literature, literary geography, and mapping as a methodology of comparison.
Concepts and practices of literary geography have gained significant ground in the field of comparative criticism in recent years. As Franco Moretti writes in his Atlas of the European Novel (1998), mapping “space in literature” as well as “literature in space” activates alternative, “place-bound” readings of literary works: as productive interfaces between the worlds of fiction and of history, and as meaningful points of contact between languages and cultures across the world.
As a springboard for discussion, we encourage participants to compare different literary geographies by consulting the introduction and first chapter of Moretti’s book, alongside the introductions to one or more of the works listed below (which address literary geographies of empire, city, region and hemisphere respectively). Participants may also draw on other methodologies and readings, relating to literatures in any language or geographical area.
Moretti, F (1998) Atlas of the European Novel: 1800-1900. Verso, London. [Available at Scribd]
Wanberg, K (2020) Maps of Empire: A Topography of World Literature. University of Toronto Press, Toronto. [Available on SOLO]
Utkin, R (2023) Charlottengrad: Russian Culture in Weimar Berlin. University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, WI. [Available on SOLO]
Orsini, F (2023) East of Delhi: Multilingual Literary Culture and World Literature. Oxford University Press, Oxford. [Available on SOLO]
Boehmer, E (2025) Southern Imagining: A Literary and Cultural History of the Far Southern Hemisphere. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. [Available on SOLO]
