At a time when our entire planet seems to have been explored and mapped, several factors have contributed to an unprecedented interest in cartography: the postmodern critique of representation; the popularity of outdoors activities; the rebirth of geography as academic discipline; new techniques of exploration of outer space; the increasing importance of the image as vehicle of knowledge; the development of computer technology, and the emergence of a non-physical territory--cyberspace--that defies static mapping systems. Can literary theory benefit from this renewal of interest in all things cartographic ? Papers are solicited on the following topics:

• Contemporary perspectives on maps and mapping
• Use of maps and graphic information in literary works (i.e. fictional texts that include maps)
• Maps in hypertext and computer games; mapping the World Wide Web
• Imaginary countries on the Internet (contact the organizer for URLs of imaginary countries)
• Maps, mapping, orientation and disorientation as literary themes
• Fictional geographies vs. real geography: how literary texts rewrite the map of the world
• Fictional geographies as cognitive problem: how readers orient themselves in the imaginary world by constructing a mental map; how this process is inhibited in certain postmodern texts

For proposals please contact Marie-Laure Ryan:

write me at: marilor@uswest.net
visit me at: lamar.colostate.edu/~pwryan

Abstracts (250 words) needed by September 1st.