Relative Modelling in Namescape Mapping: A New Re-presentational Approach for Spatializing Narratives

Abstract

Onomastic sweeps can be effective in extracting lists of place-names from texts, but identification alone is insufficient to compile a true map of spatiality. Key inferential information is stripped away that situates a named place within a broad range of potential contextual states that are more than just a Boolean ‘inclusion’. Conventional geoparsing and onymic approaches necessarily treat every name as holding an equal status in a work, but this is not the case. Rather, a topologically led approach to mapping namescapes offers a more accurate means of re-presenting – and engaging with – the namescape for any text, no matter its relation to the real mappable world. As well as providing a neutral platform for comparing spatial priorities across any texts, no matter how disparate they may be stylistically. This proposed methodological reprioritization allows for a critical focus on the contextual role and relation between named entities, enabling detailed inquiries into the complex referential operation of names as inter- and intra-locative tokens. This article will use the opening chapter of Bram Stoker’s Dracula as a demonstrative exemplar to highlight both the semantic difficulties in identifying referential utilization and how a relation approach offers new interpretative and critical stylometric angles for literary analysis.