MAPPING THE 18TH CENTURY LITERARY WEST INDIES

What is this “Mapping the Literary 18^th Century West Indies” space in cyberspace about?  What can you find here?  Why should you look? First, it is a project for an 18^th century English literature class, created to practice the new genre of Digital Humanities.  Second, it is a way to link the flat "naming words" of Caribbean island spaces referenced in 18^th century English literature to their material geographical location in the Caribbean Sea.  Third, it is a way to map, mentally, what those islands were “like" in the 18^th century, using academic and popular information  from the internet and elsewhere.  Fourth, it is a way to link those 18^th century realities to our 21^st century realities – because those islands are the material  Caribbean – they are still there physically though perhaps modified a bit geologically by volcanic or earthquake activity.

 What kind of mapping is this?  Is it a wall map, a navigational chart, a literary map[1], an affective map[2], or an historical geographical map[3]?  The answer to this question will be found in the user – since it can be used in all these ways.  For me, it has components of each of these.  I hope you enjoy it, on whatever level you experience it.

USER'S GUIDE

First look at the list of The Places down the right side of this page.  Click on "West Indies 1.0," to find the main page of this site.  It contains background information and history of the Caribbean (West Indies) region.  As you explore the West Indies 1.0 page,  use the list of The Places to find out more about the islands mentioned.   Just click on the name of any of The Places to be transported to a page with images and information about that place.

The list entitled 18th Century Texts includes links to eTexts of all our class texts plus two we did not read in class.  If you click on these, you will reach the full text of the book. The references to the West Indies found in our texts are discussed on the page (not surprisingly) named Textual References.

Bibliographic information and Acknowledgments can be found on the page of the same name. If you explore the bibliography page, you will find links where you can read some of these further sources on-line.

Questions may be directed to me at aa6417@wayne.edu.

I really hope you enjoy this exploration and mapping of the 18th Century Literary West Indies.  It is a little-known region of great import and this project has been a great pleasure to create.

Sharon Tevis Finch
December 14, 2010

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[1] Moretti, Franco. Graphs, Maps, Trees: Abstract Models for a Literary History. London: Verso, 2005.

[2] Flatley, Jonathon. Affective Mapping:  Melancholia and the Politics of Modernism.  Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2008.
[3] Graham, Brian and Catherine Nash, Eds. Modern Historical Geographies.   Edinburgh Gate: Pearson, 2000.

Mapping the 18th Century Literary West Indies by Sharon Tevis Finch is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.  This license applies only to text not otherwise attributed, and does not apply to images unless specifically designated.