IMAGINATIVE GEOGRAPHIES AND THE GEOGRAPHICALREADING OF LITERATURE TEXTS: A REVIEW BASEDON GEOGRAPHICAL PUBLICATIONS
WENG Shi-xiu1,2
1. School of Geography and Planning, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China;
2. Center for Tourism Planning and Research, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510275, China
Abstract The Geography of Literature in China has paid very little attention to the interpretational reading of literature texts.This paper aims at introducing one of the most important theories in this field, Edward Said's Imaginative Geographies, to Chinese human geographers who's interested in Literature. Through this introduction, researchers can learn to read literature texts in a particular perspective and develop a theory in different directions. By reviewing papers and monographs published in English which adopted the concept of Imaginative Geographies to analyze literature texts, this paper find that:firstly, the Imaginative Geographies Theory influenced the birth of the Postcolonial Analysis in the Geography of Literature in Western countries. Before the Imaginative Geographies Theory had been introduced to Human Geography, there had been very little research adopted the perspective of Post-colonialism, but from then on, Postcolonial Analysis became one of the most important approaches; secondly, the evolution of this theory in the Geography of Literature can be divided into three stages:the first stage developed the theory by considering the physicality and diversity of imaginative geographies, the second stage developed the theory in multiple directions such as the social construction and reconstruction of imaginative geographies, the spatial specificity and situational specificity in different imaginative geographies, the relations between gender or sexuality and imaginative geographies; the third stage discussed how literature genres influence the production and delivery of imaginative geographies.
2014, Vol. 29 
