Ian Gregory and David Cooper's paper will seek to expand the conceptual possibilities opened up by the use of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology through an exploration of the theoretical potentiality of the literary GIS. Drawing upon the work carried out as part of the British Academy-funded interdisciplinary project, ‘Mapping the Lakes’, the paper will focus on the ways in which GIS can be used to explore the spatial intersections of, and distinctions between, two textual accounts of tours of the English Lake District: the proto-Picturesque journey through the region undertaken by the poet, Thomas Gray, in the autumn of 1769; and Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s self-consciously post-Picturesque ‘circumcursion’ of August 1802. Alongside this text-specific focus, the paper will also draw upon recent spatial literary criticism to reflect, more generally, upon the critical possibilities and problems associated with the digital mapping of the literature of place and space. Ultimately, the paper will seek to open up methodological and critical space for the ongoing development of literary GIS. More particularly, it will argue that the use of GIS technology needs to be embedded within a holistic conceptualisation of literary spatiality.

For directions to Queen Mary, and to download a map of the campus, see http://www.qmul.ac.uk/about/campus/mileend/index.html. All are welcome to attend. For further information please contact me at [log in to unmask].

--
Dr Simon Dixon
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Dissenting Academies Project
Dr Williams's Centre for Dissenting Studies
Department of English and Drama
Queen Mary, University of London
http://www.english.qmul.ac.uk/drwilliams/people/index.html#dixon