Narrating Space/Spatializing Narrative: Where Narrative Theory and Geography Meet

Marie-Laure Ryan, Kenneth Foote, and Maoz Azaryahu, eds. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State Universitiy
Press, 2016. viii and 254 pp

This collaborative book “traces an arc from narratology to geography and back” through four main
points of contact between narrative theory and geography: narrative space; the space that serves as
context, and occasionally a referent, for the text; the space taken by the text itself; and the spatial form
of the text. Chapters 2 through 4 focus on transportable, book-like narratives not situated in particular
spaces or places, whereas chapters 5 through 8 focus more on nontransportable narratives that are
rooted and inscribed in specific locations, like those told through memorial landscapes, street signs,
museums, and everyday landscapes. This latter half of the book is most likely to appeal to critical
cultural and historical geographers. The final chapter offers future directions for research at the
intersection of narrative theory with geography and other disciplines, focusing specifically on temporal
and nontemporal media and film and cinematic landscapes, as well as digital and cybernetic storytelling
on the cusp of newly invigorated research in the digital and spatial humanities. It suggests a promising
future for work at the intersection of narrative theory and geography. The first point of contact is
narrative space, which has received the most scholarly attention, and refers to the space of the story
world, or the spaces and places that make up the physical environment in which the characters of a
narrative live and move. Chapter 2, “Narrative Theory and Space,” introduces readers to the role space
plays in narration, especially its capacity for layering and textualization at varying scales and its role as a
universal or particular feature of plot. The authors excellently distill the contrasting yet at times dialectic
relationship between strategic and emotional space, and their respective parallels with space and place.
Where strategic connections to space often require a freedom of movement, emotional connections to
space are often rooted in specific places. Although the dichotomy of space as strategic versus place as
emotional is admitted to not be quite all encompassing, the discussion nonetheless provides a starting
point for understanding the general employment of space in narratology.

Chapter 8 explores storytelling in history museums, especially through the permanent exhibitions, the
building’s architecture, and other built-in features of the museum. Again here the spatial arrangement
of exhibits and text and the spatial maze through which museum patrons are directed invest a
museum’s space with a sense of narrative order, likely narrating either sequentially, from a point, or
perhaps in a hybrid fashion. Importantly, some museums blur the line between a traditional museum
and a traditional historic or heritage site, like open-air museums or perhaps former plantation sites.
Either way, the authors argue that the spatial assemblage of text, objects, architecture, and other
discourses can reveal museum designers’ intents and the stories they wish to tell. The authors cite the
U.S. Holocaust Museum as an example in which a museum’s architecture aids in its storytelling.
Architectural features like bridges and corridors mirror the key architectural features of the Warsaw
ghetto and concentration camps. Other types of materials use are meant to evoke certain emotions at
certain points along the tour. This use of narrative architecture leverages space as an element of
discourse in museum narratives. Finally, the authors argue that toponyms, historic or heritage
landscapes, and museums can be used in combination to structure spatial narratives. Geographers and
scholars of narrative should consider the authors’ approach to integrating all of these discursive spatial
elements when analyzing the role of space in narrating the past at heritage sites.

Finally, and perhaps most important, the authors develop what they call “narrative geography” and
outline its potential for use by geographers in understanding how historical sites leverage an ever-
increasing variety of narratives in space. A key contribution the authors make to thinking through what a
narrative geographic approach might entail is the expansion of analysis from the written text to the oral.
Such analysis would consider how museum docents, tour guides, and reenactors at living history
museums present their stories in space. This would likely need to be theoretically informed by
performance and performativity, and holds rich potential for analyzing the spatial narratives presented
at heritage tourism sites. Ultimately the authors recommend geographers engage more thoroughly with
narrative theory. Additionally, the authors suggest that the most obvious future direction for research
should include how media, especially film and television, affect our conceptions of space and place. New
currents in the digital and spatial humanities, including virtual reality technology, Google Earth, and
geographic information systems also present great promise for future research.