Bellringer In what ways could geography be

important to understanding a piece of literature?

Think of a novel, story, film, video game, etc. in which the geography plays a large role. What is the role of geography in the piece?

Geography Let’s say your family tells you that you’re

going on a vacation… What’s the first question that comes to

mind?

Geography WHERE?! Of course! Any writer has to ask this question as

well. Settings don’t just appear out of nowhere, they have to be created by the author.

Because of this it makes sense to think about the implications of place setting in a piece of fiction

Geography Some writers pick one spot and stick with

it William Faulkner – Yoknapatawpha, MS Thomas Hardy – Wessex, England Matt Groening (The Simpsons) –

Springfield Despite this, most authors like to move

around, and for good reasons

Geography Huck Finn people…Tell us a bit about the

geography of Huck Finn In Cold Blood people…Is geography

important in your book? How? A Passage to India? The Road?

Geography What do we think of when geography

comes up? Hills, creeks, deserts, beaches, latitude

and longitude, etc. You’d be right to say these things, but

geography can have a pretty profound affect on the people who have to deal with it politically, historically, economically, and culturally

Geography Why was Napoleon unable to conquer

Russia? Why was Charleston the original capital

of South Carolina What made the Panama Canal such a big

deal? While geography may be land formations

and the like, these things have influence

Geography Jared Diamond discusses the role of Geography in Guns, Germs and

Steel Diamond argues that Eurasian civilization is not so much a product

of ingenuity, but of opportunity and necessity. That is, civilization is not created out of superior intelligence, but is the result of a chain of developments, each made possible by certain preconditions. The first step towards civilization is the move from nomadic hunter-gatherer to rooted agrarian. Several conditions are necessary for this transition to occur: 1) access to high protein vegetation that endures storage; 2) a climate dry enough to allow storage; 3) access to animals docile enough for domestication and versatile enough to survive captivity. Control of crops and livestock leads to food surpluses. Surplus frees people up to specialize in activities other than sustenance and supports population growth. The combination of specialization and population growth leads to the accumulation of social and technologic innovations which build on each other. Large societies develop ruling classes and supporting bureaucracies, which in turn lead to the organization of nation states and empires. (Source: Wikipedia)

Geography Because of the massive influence of

Geography, in literature geography has implications also about characters, plot, theme, symbolism, etc.

If you met a character in China you would probably expect them to behave differently than say a character who lives in Spain.

Geography Affect on Mood/Tone “A singularly dreary tract of country,” “a

few rank sedges,” “white trunks of decayed trees,” “the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn,” “bleak walls,”

Why do you think Poe uses these descriptions of geography/architecture in “Fall of the House of Usher?”

Geography Affect on Character Why do so many characters “leave

home” in stories and novels?

Geography Sometimes the geography can nearly

become a character in itself The jungles of Vietnam in Tim O’Brien’s

Going After Cacciato The mountain road in T.C. Boyle’s “The

Swift Passage of the Animals”

Geography Sometimes sending a character south

might be a way for the author to delve into their subconscious as if we’re going deeper and deeper into the mind

Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness” Jack Kerouac’s On the Road

Geography Seamus Heaney’s “Digging” set in the

bogs of Northern Ireland

Geography Hills and Valleys Jack went up the hill to fetch a pale of

water right? But come on! We know that the author

had him go up a hill so he could tumble back down it right?

Geography High altitudes: snow, ice, purity, thin air,

clear views, isolation, life, death Low altitudes: swamps, crowds, fog,

darkness, fields, heat, unpleasantness, people, life, death

Ernest Hemingway’s “The Snows of Kilimanjaro”

Write three questions you have about the story.

In what way does Hemingway use geography to expand the “message” of the story?

What other interesting devices do you see Hemingway using? How? Where?