Mapping with Words: Anglo-Canadian Literary Cartographies, 1789-1916

“What can geographers learn from Mapping with Words? Through carefully selected texts, analyzed through a literary cartographic approach, Krotz helps us understand geographical change in particular places in Canada, as the land was being colonized. She shows what happens on the ground, in lived experience and observation, as new people and new forces arrive and disrupt existing Indigenous society. She draws out a deeper geographical life in particular regions, which leads to a fuller understanding of their geography of today.” John Warkentin, The Canadian Geographer

"Mapping with Words is so engaging that the blurbs by Jenny Kerber and Christoph Irmscher rightly call it a ‘pleasure’ and ‘fun to read.’"

Tracy Ware, Queen’s University, University of Toronto Quarterly: Letters in Canada 2018

"The most appealing aspect of Mapping with Words is that Krotz acknowledges the messiness, terror and labour involved in producing early maps – the result of the efforts not only of the explorers who drew them, but of many others, including voyageurs, Indigenous advisors and guides, women, and even children."

Brigid Magner, RMIT University, Literary Geographies

"Elegantly written, Mapping with Words is a pleasure to read. Its union of geography and literature is valuable, and scholars will benefit from close readings that illustrate colonial processes of territorial re-inscription as considerably fraught. Aimed at Early Canadianists, Mapping with Words will also appeal to readers of historical geography, environmental studies, and Indigenous Studies."

Jenny Kerber, Department of English and Film Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University

"Mapping with Words is a model of what literary or rather cultural criticism ought to be today, a genuinely original and fascinating contribution to Canadian Studies: accessible, politically, culturally, and historically aware, and fun to read."

Christoph Irmscher, Department of English, Indiana University, Bloomington