Image and Substance: A Review of Literary Geography

Abstract

Novelists and geographers are each concerned with landscapes. Over time, geographers have come to appreciate that writers offer interpretations of land-scapes unavailable from scientific analysis. Writers convey feelings, viewpoints, values, attitudes and meanings associated with landscapes. The study of literary works by geographers is termed literary geography and it began in England. In the United States the subject received considerable attention in the late 1970s and in the 1980s. This article provides an historical review of major developments.