literary cartography and 
tourism  63
Literary Cartography
and Tourism
Literary cartography is more than a simple set
of maps where the places of authors and their
texts are marked. It is a repository of the liter-
ary memory that enables the (re)organization,
the (re)reading and the study of space based
on multiple layers of meaning that works and
various authors of all epochs deposit and jux-
tapose in the same geographical coordinates.
Literary cartography is therefore a set of maps
from which multiple products and experiences
of literary tourism can be designed, either
using the places individually for visits or hold-
ing events, or organizing them in itineraries
or routes (local, regional, national or interna-
tional). Literary cartography expands tourist
space, since all places connected with literature
are literary tourism resources. It increases the
number of attractions, suggests new routes and
new activities, and contributes to a more bal-
anced distribution of tourist flows.
Cartography, in the sense of the art, sci-
ence and technology of making maps (Kent
and Vujakovic, 2018, p. 1), accompanies the
very history of civilization. This testifies to the
human need for guidance in space – a need that
compelled human beings to transpose map-
ping to the acts of writing and reading, thus
generating literary maps and, consequently, a
literary cartography, which forms the basis of
literary tourism, as simplified in the figure. As
Engberg-Pedersen (2017, p. 3) notes, there is a
tremendous interest in maps and cartography:
‘Throughout the twentieth century more literary
works engaged with maps than ever before. But
in the early twenty-first century, the literary fas-
cination with maps has only intensified’. This
derives from the widely studied representations
and (re)creations and even re-signification of
spaces themselves – a spatial turn (Soja, 1989)
in literature and in the different social sciences
that occurs, not by accident, during the same
period in which tourism undergoes a great
development.
In 1904, William Sharp wrote a book enti-
tled Literary Geography, coining the term. One
year later, Virginia Woolf renewed this con-
cept in her essay ‘Literary Geography’ (1905).
In this work, Woolf states that ‘[a] writer’s
country is a territory within his own brain; and
we run the risk of disillusionment if we try
to turn such phantom cities into tangible brick
and mortar… to insist that [a writer’s city]
has any counterpart in the cities of the earth
is to rob it of half of its charm’ (Woolf [1905]
1986, p. 35). But the author’s position on this
issue is not consensual, as we can establish
from the words and work of her contemporary,
James Joyce, who, during a conversation with
a friend, Frank Budgen, about Ulysses (1922),
claims he wants to give such a real image of
Dublin that, if the city disappears, it can be
reconstructed from his book (Budgen [1934]
1960). Thus, Woolf argues for an abstract and
imaginary representation of space, while James
Joyce claims a literality that allows a full over-
lap of literary and physical maps.
In the 21st century, the presence of maps in
everyday life is permanent, whether on paper
or, increasingly, in digital format (Edney, 2019;
Quinteiro, 2021), accessible on mobile devices.
This extends to all types of maps, including
literary ones – the maps that have been built
for centuries by literary texts and their readers.
Texts have been delimited frontiers and ter-
ritories and built landscapes often associated
with real places. Literary texts describe spaces
and places, connect them with feelings, emo-
tions and stories, and suggest itineraries. They
bring a literary meaning to physical places,
drawing a geography of their own – a liter-
ary geography on which literary cartography
is based. Some examples of literary maps are
illustrated in the box.
Designing literary tourism products and
experiences, or even creating a literary desti-
nation or rebranding a tourism destination,
necessarily involves a fundamental element:
the point at which physical space and literature
meet – the literary place, the minimum unit of
literary tourism. A place where authors, texts or
events created around it, or associated with it,
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64  encyclopedia of tourism management and marketing
Literary
place
Literary
map
Literary
cartography
Literary
tourism
From literary place to literary tourism
converge and provide a literary meaning rec-
ognized as such by readers and/or tourists. This
is a major attraction for tourists who visit des-
tinations based on literary cartography. There
are three types of literary maps: the paratextual
map, the hermeneutic map and the biographical
map:
• Paratextual maps are particularly present in
travel literature, especially when the action is
located in imaginary spaces, and abundantly
in literature for children. This kind of map
exists to help readers materialize their mental
constructions of the spaces, places and paths
suggested by the book (Engberg-Pedersen,
2017).
• The hermeneutic map arises from the
encounter of the reader with the text from the
acts of reading and interpreting. While read-
ing, readers build in their minds the maps of
the streets and the places mentioned by the
narrator. The hermeneutic map is the result
of the reader’s reception of the word map
suggested by the literary text.
• Finally, the biographical map is the map of the
places of the author. Although the interpreta-
tion of the text does not necessarily imply the
establishment of a link between the text and
the author, the attraction to the figure of the
writer is a major factor for literary tourism,
being at the very origin of the phenomenon.
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Even though the journey with literary moti-
vation, from the mid-20th century onwards,
has added other components such as visits to
the places of the texts and characters, authors
and their estate/­memorabilia remain a strong
attraction.
The recognition of the importance of the figure
of the author (also as a tourist attraction) makes
public entities mark their places, name streets
and public buildings after them, raise writers’
statues or display writers’ names in plaques on
the paving stones or the bricks of buildings.
Noble and visited areas of the cities are chosen
for this display, as is the case of the Brazilian
writers’ statues near Copacabana beach (Rio de
Janeiro) or the Irish writers’ plaques in Literary
Parade in St. Patrick’s Park (Dublin, Ireland).
Neighbourhoods, cities, districts, regions and
even countries use their writers as brands:
Colombia and Gabriel Garcia Márquez, and
Bahia, Brazil and Jorge Amado.
By creating literary places related to their
writers and connecting them with their market-
ing strategy, authorities enable the drawing of
literary maps based on those authors and trig-
ger literary journeys. Some houses, statues and
graves of famous authors such as the tomb of
Oscar Wilde located in Père Lachaise Cemetery
(Paris, France), or the House of Cervantes
(Madrid, Spain) become unavoidable attrac-
tions for enthusiastic readers. Sometimes even
the most distracted visitors, those that aren’t
associated with cultural interests, cannot avoid
noticing statues such as Fernando Pessoa’s in
Chiado (Lisbon, Portugal), Carlos Drummond
de Andrade’s in Copacabana (Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil), or António Aleixo’s (Loulé, Portugal).
We refer to these statues in particular because
they incorporate empty benches or chairs next
to the writer’s figure. This empty space is an
invitation to the tourists who are passing by.
Thus, whether they know the author and their
work or not, tourists stop, sit down, take the
photograph and post it on social networks,
identifying the author and the place.
Scholars, local or national authorities, liter-
ary societies, tourist companies, readers and
even tourists draw literary maps – maps based
on scenery, characters and authors, sometimes
so strong that they are even referred to as the
identifying element of space and not the other
way around. This is the case for Don Quixote
and La Mancha, Spain; of Clarice Lispector’s
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Fernando Pessoa’s
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 literary heritage and tourism  65

LITERARY MAPS AND ATLASES

The Literary Atlas of Continental Portugal: https://litescape.ielt.fcsh.unl.pt/.

The Literary Tube Map of London: https://www.inthebook.com/en-gb/literary-tube-map/.
Literary Map of Calgary: https://www.heritagecalgary.ca/heritage-calgary-blog/yycliterarymap.
Endrets: Literary Geography of the Catalan Countries: http://www.endrets.cat/.

Lisbon, Portugal or Kafka’s Prague, Czech Soja, E.W. (1989), Postmodern Geographies: The
Republic. Literary cartography incorporates Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory,
tangible elements but also consists of subjec- London: Verso.
tivity. Multiple literary movements, ways of Woolf, V. ([1905] 1986), ‘Literary geography’, in
looking, perspectives and even the effects of A. McNeillie (ed.), The Essays of Virginia Woolf,
the passage of time on cities, contribute to a Vol. 1, London: Hogarth Press, pp. 32–5.
profusion of landscapes – landscapes that
are unique, authentic, attractive and that can
be transformed into tourist resources or even
create a literary tourism destination. Literary
cartography adds value to destinations as it sup-
ports different stakeholders to co-create value
(Quinteiro, Rodrigues and Carreira, 2020). It is
an important economic resource that, in a con-
text of globalization, allows for differentiating
destinations and developing competitiveness.
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References

Budgen, F. ([1934] 1960), James Joyce and the

Making of ‘Ulysses’, Bloomington, IN: Indiana
University Press. Sí
Edney, M.H. (2019), Cartography: The Ideal History,
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Engberg-Pedersen, A. (2017), ‘Introduction –
estranging the map: on literary cartography’,
in A. Engberg-Pedersen (ed.), Literature and
Cartography: Theories, Histories, Genres,
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Kent, A.J. and Vujakovic, P. (2018), The Routledge
Handbook of Mapping and Cartography, New
York: Routledge.
Quinteiro, S. (2021), ‘Link up with technology
application in literary tourism’, in A. Hassan and
A. Sharma (eds), The Emerald Handbook of ICT in
Tourism and Hospitality, Bingley, UK: Emerald,
pp. 379–89.
Quinteiro, S., Rodrigues, A. and Carreira, V.
(2020), ‘Caracterização e análise do potencial
de desenvolvimento do turismo cultural literário
em Coimbra’ [Characterization and analysis of
the potential for the development of literary cul-
tural tourism in Coimbra], Revista Portuguesa de
Estudos Regionais, 56(3), 85–99.

Sílvia Quinteiro and Maria José Marques

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