Abstract
This chapter attempts a history and definition of spatial narrative. Spatial narrative, it is argued, is a methodologically diverse consequence of the Spatial Humanities, but it is also very much older. Spatial narrative in fact is, and has always been, a consequence of people’s relationship with the technologies they use to understand and navigate place. This includes technologies directly associated with mapping, such as maps themselves, navigational equipment and GPS. However it also includes the media technology through which information about place is communicated and received. This includes printing, engraving and book production, and the physical technologies of computing and mobile devices. Spatial narrative exists in the context of humans’ relationships with all of these technologies, and has evolved as such over centuries. A clear understanding of this long history of spatial narrative is an essential part of the theoretical and critical frameworks which the Spatial Humanities is laying down, as it continues to establish itself as a discipline.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Oxford Handbook of Spatial Humanities |
| Publisher | Oxford Univerity Press; Oxford |
| Publication status | Published - 2025 |