LITERARY CARTOGRAPHIES: THE PLACE NAMES IN MARIO RIGONI STERN'S FICTION

Abstract

Connecting to the recent geographical debate on «literary GIS» and the wide potentialities of the cartographic analysis applied to literature, this paper presents the first results of a hefty work of cataloging and mapping of over 700 place names in the fiction of Mario Rigoni Stern (Il sergente nella neve, Quota Albania, Storia di Tönle, L’anno della vittoria, Le stagioni di Giacomo, L’ultima partita a carte). The analytical potential of a synoptic view through several maps is here highlighted, with reference to three main themes among the many possible: the pattern of distribution of the place names from the local context to the global scale, the historical depth which always characterizes the reference to space and places, and the crucial role carried out by the memory of places and the «elsewhere’s geographies» in the author’s literary works.