Abstract

This paper proposes an overview of the multiple ways of envisioning the relationships between maps and narratives from a mapmaking perspective. Throughout the process of editing this special issue, we have identified two main types of relationships. Firstly, maps have been used to represent the spatiotemporal structures of stories and their relationships with places. Oral, written and audio-visual stories have been mapped extensively, raising some recurrent cartographic issues such as improving the spatial expression of time, emotions, ambiguity, connotation, as well as the mixing of personal and global scales, real and fictional places, dream and reality, joy and pain. Secondly, this paper discusses the potential of maps as narratives and the importance of connecting the map with the complete mapping process through narratives. Although the potential of maps to tell stories has already been widely acknowledged, we emphasize the increasing recognition of the importance of developing narratives describing critically the cartographic process and context in which maps unfold, which is the core idea of post-representational cartography. Telling the story of how maps are created and how they come to life in a broad social context as well as in the hands of their users becomes a new challenge for mapmakers.