Literatur an der Grenze der Kartierbarkeit. RansmayrsAtlas eines ängstlichen Mannes

Abstract

Against the backdrop of manifold literary works published in recent years that allude to practices of mapping and the form of the atlas, this article investigates forms of appearance and poetical functions of cartography in Christoph Ransmayr’s Atlas eines ängstlichen Mannes (2012). It starts out with a theoretical discussion on the relationship between literary writing and cartography as forms of representation. Thereafter it turns to Ransmayr’s text as an example of literary writing that refers to and plays with the cartographic medium. In showing that reflections on cartography mainly carry the role of addressing and envisioning the limits of representation and the many blank spots of narration the article argues that the references to cartography can be interpreted as aspects of literary self-reflection. As many chapters of Ransmayr’s Atlas are set in waterscapes and fluid environments, the paper also discusses difficulties and potentials of mapping the fluid element by means of literary writing. Drawing on Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of smooth and striated space the paper shows how Ransmayr’s Atlas articulates an awareness of the limits of cartography and at the same time explores forms of writing and narration that to a higher degree correspond to our fluid sense of self in times marked by globalization and mobility.1

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