Mapping History; Surveying the Unfathomable in Pynchon’s Mason & Dix

Marwan Maho  Abdi; Sherzad Shafie  Babo

doi:10.21271/zjhs.28.SpB.29

توێژەران

Marwan Maho Abdi Department of English, College of Languages, University of Duhok
Sherzad Shafie Babo Department of English, College of Langiages, Salahaddin University-Erbil, Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.

##semicolon##

https://doi.org/10.21271/zjhs.28.SpB.29

##semicolon##

Historiographic Metafiction, Cartography, Parageography, Power Dynamics, Pynchon.

پوختە

This article examines Thomas Pynchon's Mason and Dixon, as a leading example of historiographical metafiction which seamlessly blends fictional narratives with factual elements. This novel explores the relationship between geography and parageography, and emphasizes the relationship between cartography and storytelling. By exploring the power dynamics which are inherent in mapmaking and storytelling, the paper examines how mapmaking and the inscription of history assist imperial authorities to impose and perpetuate their dominance over others. Through a close examination of Pynchon's non-linear and complex narrative structure, this article highlights the manners in which Mason & Dixon counters the conventional notions of truth, hence inviting the reader to question any constructed nature either, maps or historical representation. Ultimately, this metafictional narrative prompt deeper investigation of the intricate intersections between fiction, historiography, geography, and the manipulation of knowledge.

سەرچاوەکان

-Krzysztof Piekarski, Martin Kevorkian, and Elisabeth McKetta Mapping. (2006) “The Unmappable, and Pynchon’s Antitragic” in Pynchon’s Against the Day: A Corrupted Pilgrim’s Guide Ed., Jeffrey Severs and Christopher Leise pp. 47, 66, Newark, DE: University of Delaware Press.

-Narkunas J. Paul. (2019) “Europe and Asia” in Thomas Pynchon in Context. Ed., Inger H. Dalsgaard. 47-57. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

-Pohlmann, Sascha. (2019) “Geographies and Mapping” in Thomas Pynchon in Context. Ed., Inger H. Dalsgaard. 67-73. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

-Pynchon, Thomas. (1997) Mason & Dixon. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

-Rainer Friedrich. “The Enlightenment Gone Mad (I): The Dismal Discourse Of Postmodernism’s Grand Narratives.” Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics 19, no. 3 (2012): 31–78. https://doi.org/10.2307/arion.19.3.0031.

-Robert L. Mclaughlin. (2003) Surveying, Mapmaking and Representation in Mason & Dixon in American Postmodernity: Essays on the Recent Fiction of Thomas Pynchon. Ed., Ian D. Copestake. 173-193, Bern: Peter Lang AG, European Academic Publishers.

-Saltzman, Arthur, (2000) “Cranks of Ev’ry Radius”: Romancing the Line in Mason & Dixon” in in Pynchon and Mason & Dixon, edited by Brooke Horvath and Irving Malin. Newark and London: University of Delaware Press, 2000. 63-73.

-Wood Michael. (2003) “Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon.” in Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Thomas Pynchon. Ed., Harold Bloom. 251-261. Pennsylvania: Chelsea House Publishers.