Mapy literackie – kłącze, fałdy i „efekt przedpokoju”

Abstract

This essay summarizes remarks on the metaphor of the map as it is used within the field of geopoetics. Its first meaning refers to the representation of literary space in works of fiction. The second is often used to describe an imaginary vision of real geographic (political, economic etc.) space. It is therefore determined (or “created”) by culture, or rather by innumerable cultural texts, which affect our common, i.e. culturedependent imagination. In both cases “the map” should not be considered a representation in its traditional meaning of something essentially present or given. Instead, Deleuzian metaphors of the rhizome and the fold seem more convenient here, as they highlight this unready, process- and interpretation-dependent character. The sets of metaphorical notions, such as “fold/ply,” “double fold/twofold/two-ply,” and “folding/creasing/ironing imaginary maps” are used in this paper to clarify the idea of the “antechamber effect.” As a consequence, this is a phenomenon which, within the realm of literary imagination, renders nonexistent certain real territories that have weak cultural potential.