ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the way in which the coexistence of literary maps alongside narratives to which they refer can subtly critique cartographic modes of spatial being. While being able to read a map represents knowledge (and thus power) in literary mapping just as it does for real-world maps, the co-presence of visual and verbal representations also means that such knowledge can be shown to be occurring at the expense of a more authentic relationship with the environment in the text. A different kind of spatial being emerges for those who journey without a map. This implicit critique also creates a cartographic contradiction between representations of place and space on the endpaper map and within the fictional world. Zoocentric texts, such as Watership Down and Tarka the Otter, bring this to the fore as cartographic contradiction becomes bound up with problems of anthropomorphism and representation of the non-human through human forms of communication. This chapter will focus on texts that exemplify this contradiction to explore the tensions that emerge.
