Abstract:

Literary geography has gained increasing attention from the disciplines of literature and geography. The two disciplines, however, have disparate perspectives on literary geography research. Based on existing literature, this article presents a critical, comparative analysis of literary geography of the two disciplines. There is a steady stream of literature concerned with literary geography from a literary perspective. In contrast, there is a dearth of debates regarding literary geography in the field of geography. Chinese geographical research on literary geography is largely absent to date. The current segregated, discipline-based approach has given rise to the false impression of juxtaposition of two literary geographies. In response, the article calls for a synergetic approach to breaking the disciplinary boundaries in terms of theory, methodology, and practice.

Key words: literary geography, literary space, human-nature relationship, cultural geography