Mapping Melville in the Pacific: An Atlas

What does it mean to make a map out of an imaginary, or an imaginary out of a map? This paper applies geophysical data visualization to the literary cartographies of Melville’s early Pacific novels. I’ve created 8–10... [ view full abstract ]

What does it mean to make a map out of an imaginary, or an imaginary out of a map? This paper applies geophysical data visualization to the literary cartographies of Melville’s early Pacific novels. I’ve created 8–10 non-standard vector maps that visualize Tommo’s island-hopping, collectivity-generating experiences: the first map presents a “macro” view of the islands, charting his movement based upon described spatial cues, and subsequent maps are topographical views characterized by Tommo’s unique experiences, presenting a more intimate, even phenomenological, engagement with the islands. In Omoo, Melville writes of the Pacific: “Indeed, considerable portions still remain wholly unexplored; and there is doubt as to the actual existence of certain shoals, and reefs, and small clusters of islands vaguely laid down in the charts.” These maps, like any reader’s experience, are subjective—and, like all maps, are necessarily reductive. In translating Tommo’s narrated observations, I show how Melville reclaims the map from its institutionalized geographical form, a move that arises from his skepticism toward mimetic maps as an imperial project. Tommo’s non-uniform movement disrupts any illusion of a map’s facticity, as the reader attempts to recreate the Pacific Islands, their multi-ethnic collectivities, and utopian potential, in her imagination.