il

CoGNrnvE M^Ps / 215

the obseNer [ofan environment] selects, organizes, and endows with mean_
ing what he s€es' (quoled p. 53), Bjornson uses the term of cognitive map
to denote a global mental &presenlation oflhe literary lext that involves not
just spalial rclations, but any $Te of meaning and formal organization.
Drawing a broad analogy between graphic maF and menlal rePresentations
of texts, Bjomson *Tites that cognitive maPs 'ere necessarily incomplete
9 and schenatized; lhey can never achiev€ exact cotespondence with thc teni_
tory they represenl, and any clairn that they embody absolute truth deserves i
ro be rcgarded wilh skepticism' (55)- But it look lhe adoption of lhe term
Cognitive Maps and the Construction by a critic as prominent as Fredric Jameson to put 'cognitive maPPing' on
the literary-critical map. Also clsiming inspiration from Lynch's Inage of
ofNarrative Space t e Cttl, Jameson Foposed lo exlend the concept ftom the purely spatial to )

the social domain. To draw a 'cognitive map' of social phenomena, in

MARIE-LAURE RYAN
Jarnesoiis sense, is to study these phenomena not in isolation but as pad of I

a world-spanning network of relations. The 'phenomenological exp€rience'

ofsomebody living in London may for ioslance be bound up to 'the whole
colonial system ofrhe British Empir€', as this syslem 'determines the very
quality ofthe individual's subjective life' (349). Jameson's concept of cog-
I
I

Itrtroduction nitive mapping pav€d the way for cultural and globalizalion studies, and it
opened the floodgales to the mapping of anything that passes through lhe

l:was :l_"::ot .lpSll^": map dirTerenr rhinss ro differcnt p€opte. h

mind ofthe postmodem subject.
rntroduced in 1948 by fie 'neans
psychotogist Edward Tolman Her€ I will work from a much nanower and literal definition: a cogni_
to descriie rhe
navigational skills that enable rals in a maze !o rea"n tive map is a mental model ofrpdttai relations. But this delinition presents
familiar paft has been blocked. In more rccent years,
fooa Uo", ,"t* rt" sulticient veNalility to rEach into narrative lerriiory. The space rePressled
" the telm has been
applied lo people's memorizalions ofgraphic maps (as I will by the map can indeed be real or imaginary. The representation can be based
call whar we
co-mmonty regard as .geographic, maps: road maps. topogaphical on embodicd experience (moving through space, seeing, hearing, smelling
maps,
wortd. maps)l to menrat imaSes ofcomplex spadal the world), or on the reading of lexts. Th€ lext can be a graphic mtP, or a
environmenrs, such as a
crty (Lynch); to the knowledge that enables peopte to draw verbal evocation. The verbal evocation can be narowly focused on spac€
free_hand im_
ag€s ot crty^srreets. countries. or conrinents (Tuan I97S): (direcrions, descriptions, trav€l Suides) or tleat space as a stage for narralive
to private rcpre-
sentalions of geographical entities ftat ascribe p€rsonal values events. My focus will be on the second term ofeach altemative
ro different
areasl dangcrolls. safe. desirabl€. vacation spot, good place Stories tell about the actions of intelligent agents. Thes€ agents ale
to live, and so
on (Uould and White 1974). Tuan (t9751 210_ turrher proposes situated within a world, and so are the objecls they acl upon One may infer
tunchons t-or menlat rnaps: (t) Tbey,nake il possible
l five
Irom this description that telling a story necessitates, in the words of David
to giv;di;ections to
strangers: (2) They enable people ro .rehearse spatial Heinan, 'modeliog, and enabling others to model, an emelg€nt coostella-
behavior. (as docs a
nder who goes menblly over an obsraclc course before jumping tion ol spatially related entities' (534). Nanative thus entails 'a process of
a competi_
rhey cognilive napping lhat ,ssigns referents not merely a tempo.al but a rPat o-
I:-nL
are used as nm€monfu devices (.mem".y
lll to srrucrure and sLore knowledgel pl""l,yi <aj ril"y in lhe storyworld' (535). But cognitive maps, like
are means lcmpoml position
{5) They serve as .ficlds oi
dreams' lo rhe imagination ( for inslance dreaming ofCalifomia). graphic ones, can represent worlds in various dege€s of detail and prec!
In a l98l anicle Richard Bjomson proposed to exlend the term sion. while ii seems cvident that narmtive comprehension rcquires soze
to rhc
cognrt've processing of titerature. Relying principally
on Lynch,s idcr that
lirdof mental model of space-how else could readers imagine character
Namri|e m@,r Md the Coea i|e Scrcnc.s movments?-the issue ofthe form and content ofthis model remains to be
DrvdHmn {.d ).
Copyright @ 2003, CSL| pubtic io$.
2I6 / MARII-LAURE RYAN (IrrNUr!r NlAr,r /,'ll
explored. Wlat are the relations between cognitive ntaps and graphic maps?
As in most detective stories the lopographical layoul oi lhc sctllnS llll
To what exrent and in what derail do mental maps oflextual worlds need to
fillsa stmtegic function of utmost importance. It is common lbr invcsllBr.
represent sparial rclations berween objects? Through what stmtegies do texrs
tors lo draw a map oflhe scene of lhe crime and to plot on lhis map thc
facilitate the conceplualization ofthese relalions? Is a rotalizing, bird's-eye-
movements of victim and suspects. In Garcia Maquez' nov€l this map is
view mental image ofnarrative space necessary io a proper rmderstanding of
implicirly dnwn by the naratoas minute-by-minute recomiruction of the
plot, or do readeF work from canographic filgmenls? Such arc the ques-
events that lead up to the murder ofNasar. The first seclion rclales Santiago
tions that I would like to address in lhe present essay. I will do so by com-
Nasar's actions on the moming of his death up to half an hour before the
paring my ol,vn 'master-map' of a narmtive text, a map reconliructed
murder (which takes place at 7i05 an). Nasar gels up at 5:45 in the mom-
lhrough close atlention to spatial cues, with maps dm*1r by readers wilh a
ing affer one hour's sleep, hung-over ftom the wedding celebration of lh€
much broader focus readeN who do not construct narrative space for its
own sake, but as a background for the mderstarding of plol, character mo- Fevious day and a visit to lhe local madam, to greet the bishop who is
visiring the lown on a river boat. The whole rolrn is there lo honor Ih€
tivations, and the moml issues aniculated in the text.
bishop, but he nerely gives a blessing from his boat and sails on. A{ler lhe
For my irvestigation of readers' construction of nanalive space I lave
depanue ofthe bishop, Nasar is invited by the narator's sister to have
chosen Chrcnicle oI a Death Forctold by cabriet Carcia Mdrquez (carcia
breakfasr at their house further down on the river, but he decides to change
M{rquez 1982). This lext recommends irself for the study of mental maps
clothes firsl, and he heads back toward his house with a friend, Cristo
through ils meticulous a(ention 10 sparial configuation. It tells about the
Bedoya. The second section narrales in a flash-back lhe courtship and wed-
death of Santiago Nasar, a twenty-year-old member ofan Arab minority in a
ding of Bajardo San Roman and Angela vicario. The third reFaces the
Caribbean town. Presented as the investigation of a crime by a nanator-
events following the end of the wedding celebralion: the bride being re-
\\itness, Chronicle of a Death Fotetold is a muder story without sus-
tumed to her mother; her brothers leaming about he. shame; the prepara-
flense. The reader klows from page one that Nasar will be murdered, and be tions for the murder; the brothers' wailing for Nasar at the milk shop
or she leams the identity ofthe killers on p. 16. If lh€re is any mystery in
(which doubles as bar) across the square fiom Nasar's house; and Nasar
this pseudo-detective novel, it concems lhe identity of the man for whom getting home safely through lhe back door. The fourth section narmles the
Nasar vicariously dies: for Nasar is kiued by the brorherc of a bride (Angela
anermaft ofthe crime: the autopsy, the lrial, and Bajardo san Roman re-
Vicario) who was retumed to her moth€r on her wcdding night because she
tuming to Angela twenty yea$ later. The last section picks up the chrcnicle
was no longer a virgin. when Angela denounces Nasar as the perpetratot
oflhe last hour of Nasar's liG where it had been lefi: Nasar gels s€parated
her twin brorh€rs Pedro and Pablo restore the family's honor by slaughler-
ftom Bedoya when an Arab shopkeep€r tries to wam Bedoya of Nasar's
ing lhe alleged culprit. But the rmconcerned attitude of Nasar, as he walk
impending fale; he visits his fianc€e's house; and finally retums home, to
lo his death, make it amply clerr that Angela was covering up for some- be butchered like a pig by the front door of his horse, which had been in-
body else. We never leam the identity of her secret lover, though Conzalo
advenently closed by his mother a few minutes earlier. The last scene
Di^z-Migoyo (1988) has ingenuously agued rhat he musl have been the
shows Nasar staggering tkough the neighbols house to get to lhe back of
nanator himseli But Nasar do€s not die for Angela's lover only: he be-
his own house, He sees the naaratois aunt, wenefrida Marquez, on ihe other
comes the scapegoat whose expulsion reamrms the unwrillen law that de-
side of the river, tu$wers her question 'what has happened to you' wilh a
fines lhe institulion of marriage in this society, a law lhal preserves the
laconic 'they've killed me, Wene child' (Garcia Marquez 1982: 143), enters
proprielary righrs of husbands over wives by limiting male sexual activity
his house through the open back door, and falls dead in the kilchen.
lo wives, servants and prostitutes, and by forbidding expressions of female
desire. (There is indeed no suggeslion that Angela acted against her will.)
The rilual dimension ofhis dearh explains rhe ambivalence of the towns- 2 Reconstructing the Map of the Fictional World
people vis-a-vis the murder. Everybody is aware ofthe killers' intent, and
maoy people make discreet attempls to wam the future victim, but nobody
is willing or able lo stand up and stop the mfolding o{ a sacrifice thal both h takes a specific agenda-rsuch as the present project to attempt the
repulses the soul and upholds the values of the communiw. systcmatic reconstruclion oflhe'textually correcl'map of a fictional world.
I1 wlls only on my rhhd reading of Crrorrcl" of a Death Forctold that I
218 / M^ruE-L^UR! RY^N
reachcd wbat I hoJ'e is a reasonably complele and accurate representalion of
the topography oftbc novel. My first reading was a reading for pure pleas-
ure. I had no intent to wrilc aboul the 1exi, and il left me \ryith a vivid,
rhough spotty visualizalion of the sctting: sonelhing like those recon-
structed Crelan ftescoes madc ofpictorial fragnents separated by blank ar-
eas. The purpose of my second reading was to dccide whether lhe novella
was suitable for rhe experiment described in this essay: I wanled to ask a
group ofhigh school sludents to dmrv their reprcscnlalion of the texnral
world. During this second pass I did sketch a map as I went along, but I
had forgollen so much oflhe tcxl that I had 1o concentral€ on oth€r dimen-
sions oflhe ploi, such as the psychological undcrpinning and the pattems
of foretelling. This led me to overlook somc imporlant pieces of spatial
inlormation, and as I drelv my map in the coursc of ny reading I had to
perform several conections. Even when I wds through, I was not sure abour
thc localion of many iterns. lt was only on my tbird rcading, after I had
collcclcd lh€ sludenrs drawings and learned a few things from tbcnr, that I
could concentrale cnlirely on the rnapping project. Irom a practical cdrtog-
rapher one who mlkcs naps in order to use th€nl I had reverted to a pure
surveyor: somebody who regards the exacl repres"-ntation ofspace as a goal
in ilsell I prcscnt thc rcsulls ofihat third pass not as rhe menral image that
any 'good' readcr should reach, bul as the represenlation of a mylh;cal
'model reader'or 'supcr'rcadcy' $ilh uhom no real reader will idenliry,
becausc this model reader has near perfect recall, and r€ads purely for lhe
map. The purpose ofthis exercise js 1o build a standard of comparison for
the dralvings and reading acts ofmy flcsh-and-blood informants.
The major difiiculty that faces the cartographic ellbns of the reader of a
nanaiive lexls is th€ discrepancy bet$€en the lemporal dincnsion ol lan-
guage and the spaiial nat{rre of naps. Researchers in cognjtivc psychology
and discourse analysis (Linde and Labov 19?5; Tversky 1996) have idcnti-
ficd lwo discours€ siralegies that assist the transposilion of sequentiauy
given inlorrnalion into synchronous spatial represenlalions: the r?ap and the
rour, also called the survey and the route. ln the map stralegy, space is rerF
resented panoramicaliy from a perspective ranging from the disembodicd
god's-cyc poinl ofview ofpure veriical projection 10 the oblique view of an
observer situalcd on an clevalcd poin!. Space is divided into segmenls, and
the texl covers the segments according to a systemaiic algorithm: east to
west and nonh to southi lefi 1o right; or front to back. In conlrast to the
more or less disembodjed and stalic perspeciiv€ of lhe map, the rorrr strat-
egy represents space dynamically fiom a pcrspeclive intemal to ihe i€rrilory
to be surveyed, namely the penpective of a moving objccl. The iour thus
simulates the embodied experience of a traveler.
CocNrrrvE M^Ps / 219
Anolher variable parameler in thc lopographic presentation of texlual
worlds is ihe tirning of the disclosurc of spatial informaiion The lext can
eilher sketch the map 3ll al once to set lhe stagc for the action, or distribute
informarion relevant to its construclion throughoul the nanative With its
neat gathering ofinformation, ihe all-at-once approach tacilitales the task of
the i;vesligator who reads for th€ map, bu1 it taxes the memory rnd atten-
tion span;fthose who r€ad for the plot: HorY manv of us can honesdv say
thal rve ncver skip descriplions? Sone mnativcs bvpass this difficultv by
presenting a graphic map of the selting. But the most widelv practiced al-
ie-uriue ;s to untold ttt" *ap gradually, bv linkjng the disclosure of spalial
information to the actjons of chamcters or by interleaving short dcscriptions
with the repon of narrative evenls This is indeed lhe mappjng strategv of
Chrcnicte;f a Death Forelold wiereas the information lied to the moving
bodics ofcharacters creales mini_lours, thc shod descriptions outline mini-
maps. To gain a panoramic view ol nanative space the reader must be able
lo ;ynthesiz€ this inlormation through a bottom-up process of conslruction
Here is a sample of the variety of slatemcnts from which I denved car-
tographic data (all page refer€nces 10 Garcia M,rquez 1982):
Direct descrjption:
wilh lwo slories.
lsanliago Nasar's] house was a formct warehouse.
walls olrougb pl.nks. and a peated lin root (10)
Mappitzg tlctiont Give two storeys 10 the holts€
Implicalion from rePorl ofev€n1s:
By ihe lime Ib.ahim Nasar.rri!.d with lhe last AEbs at ftc end of
lhe civil wa6, seagoing ships no longcr caoe here because of
shifls in the river. and the warehouse was in disuse (10)
Mapping action, Put Nasar's housc reasonably close to an am of the
river; put ih€ to\m al some distance from the ocean (on a delta or estu-
arv).
Nanativized descriplion:
lbrahim Nasar bought fthe warchouse] at a cheap p'ice in orde' lo
set up an impod store lhal he never did eslablish, and onlv when
he was going to be nasied did he converl it inlo a house lo live in'
On the grounil lloor he opened up a pa.lo. that serled for every_
thing, and in back he built astable for our aninah. thc se'vant's
quaners, dnd a country kilchen wilh rvindows opening onlo lhc
dock. (10)
Mdppht dction:The entire floor plan ofthe house can be drrwn from
thc Drrr.tlhn ol lbrahnn Nasar's rcnodeling
I 220 / MAIIE-L^UR! RYAN
CocNIrtvE MAPS / 221

cl.3r summer day you coutd mak€ out thc neat horizon of lh' Canb-
Object movemert: bcan and the touist ships from Cadas€na de lndias (39)
one moming wh€n a s€rv.nt ehl had shaken the cAe to get the pil- u""oir"-prr""
o"tion, Place lh; house on a hill a disonce from the town
low out...lhe pisrol w.nt off as it hit thc tloo. dd lhe bullet ,ft" a*n in the vicinity ofthe 't
oceani siiuale $e lown in a
wEck.d the cupboard in lhe .oom, wert lhrough lhe living room "qu'";,
simulacrum of real-world gcography.
wdl, passed lhrough the dining .oom of th. hou3e next door wilh
dl€ $under ofwar, and tumed a lifc-sirc sinl on the main altar of Omniscient r€presentation ofwhat characleB do and do not
perceive:
the chur.h on the oppositc side of lhc squdc lo pldcr dusl. (4) Fmm the;hce wherc IPI6cida Lincrc, Nasar's mothc'l was standins
Mapping aclioniPtrtNasar's house on the tor d square. Next to it put she could s€€ [he killers] but she could no1 s€€
her son' who was M-
anolher house. On lhe opposite side oflhe square put a chulch. nins toward lhe door f.om a different anglc ll38l
MdDDih; actioni Since at lhis point we know dtat the killers are
Character hovementl rtt" milk shop, and Nasar ftom his fianc€e's house'
It was lhroush lthe fro door] lhat [SantiaSo Nasa] wcnl our to "",i.inn-f.o*
place;he nilk shop and fiancee's house on differenl sides of lhe
reeivc the bishop, despil€ the fact lhat he would havc to walk sqrxre,
complct€ly dound the house in ord€r to.each lhe docks, (ll)
Mapping oction Place the ftont door on lhe square side, away fiom the
docks. This passagc also reinforces the location of lhe back sidc of
Nasa/s house near lhc docks and the river.

Explicit specifi cation of character position:

The only placc open on thc square was a milk shop on one side of
th. chu.ch whcrc the lwo flen wr€ who were waiting fo. Santiago
Nasar io orde. to kill hiD. (16)
Mappina oction: Pla.elhe milk shop next to the church smd at a short
dbtance from Nasar's house, Since these two buildings are on the side
opposite to Nasar's house, and since Nasar's house can be obEerved
from lhe milk shop, make the square fairly small.

character act of perceplion:

Thc landlady of lbe bachclo.'s bolrdins housc whw Bayardo San
RonAn lived told of how he'd been nappins in a rocking chair in
the parlor toward ih. end of Septemb€r, wh
Angela Vicdio and
he. moth.r cross.d th.
squa.e carrying two baskets of a.tificial
flowc$. Bayardo San Romdn halfawoke, saw the two women...and
askcd who ihe youns one was. (30-31)
Mapping action:P\rl abaclrclor's boarding house on the square.

Disembodi.d act of perception:

[About the house ofthe r idower Xius, which Bayardo San Rom6n brs Flgure L MNster Mlp of Chronicle of a Dearh Forerohl
bought to live therc with his future wife Angela Vicariol
 222 / M^Ru,-LAURI Ry^N
( riiNnrvr M^r's/,1:l l

My mapping ofthe texrual wortd is shown in Figure l. (Table lions do nol belong ro a paflicular syslem: for instance, thc inlbrNalion rhd
Appendix nrovides€ legend for rhis map.) I pres€nr lhe
I in rhe thc milk shop is 'next' lo the chwch can be used in all thrcc approachcs.
diagram nol as /rc
map bul as one of fie possible maps ofthe textuat world. The abs€nce in the text ofwhat Ferguson and Hcgarty (1994) call a|l-
J;t
as terts pre
chors does not facililate lhe reconstruction ofa spatial relations within rhc
Ject many possible worlds-one for every imaginarive concrerization _ihev
project many Lopogmphies. The famed incompleleness second circle. An anchor is a landmark that serves as point of referen€c for
ofrexrs and rhe
ro rrrt rn intbnnalionatgaps to reach a coherenr rnlerpretation
nj the localion of other ilems: for inslance 'square' in this made-up descrifF
is particularly
acule when one tries to t(anslale texlual information lionr 'In the middle ofthe square is a fountain; on its south side; a chrmh
into .entat'moaet" o'f
space, and lhese menlal models inro visual representations. and a bar. The other three sides are lined wilh houses and shops. A narow
A g?phic map
after ali is not a cognilive map. but only the more or street takes off ftom the north-west comer of the square and leads past thc
faithful imase of
tess
a cognrt,ve map. Wherels texrs and rhe readcis menlal jail and brothel lo the river docks'. Though lhe square forms lhe stratcgic
imaee of te;tuat
h:": rhe tocarion or objecrs unspecified. smphic naps musr center ofthe plol, it is not used in Garcia lvLirquez's rext as an orienrecring
:,::15:*
snule every rea(ure somewhere on the page. Figure is lherefore tool; it is only through relatively complex deductions lhat the read€r crn
more exptrcrr than my orieinal menlal imase.
I much
place some landmarks around i1 (ci the description of the bullet flight
ooqam o:"s nor property sh-ow. rhen. is rhe desree of preci- quoted above).
^, _Yll:ll"
sron ol the rexrual mappinE.lhe sottdofChrchicte The third strategic zone in the novel encompasses the outskirts of the
ofa Deai Forerotd is
organized inlo four rones of decreasing sharpness
and resolulion. The inner town. This is lhe scene ofthe events that lead up lo fie murder: the court-
crrcle is connit ed by the house ofNasar. rhe beginning and ending ship, the wedding, and the activilies of characters b€tween lhe end of the
of the
Joumey ot both his day and his Lfe. The rext facifirareirle arawrni of rfre wedding and the visil of the bishop on the next moming. Here buildings

,noor ell by chronictine tbrahim Nasar's remodeting of rhe forme-r ware_ arc menlioned, but we only know that they lie at some distance from rhe
nouse. I hrs strategy, which builds $e house beforc rhe square. Thc arbitrary location ofa building on lhe map is indicated by brc
reader.s inner eyes.
foliows Lessing's recommendation rhat lhe temporal rnediurn ken lines.
static d€scriptions inro narrative action.
of poetry im The last zone, not sketched on the map, is the liminal are. ftom which
clrcte:lhich encompasses rhe square and rhe docks characters emerge (for instance, Bajardo San Rom6n arriving one day on the
_,-.-ll: by $e
nver. rs Tldd]e
the rheare ofthe tasr hour in Nasar.s tife. The tocarion of iand_ weekly boat) or into which lhey disappear the killers sent lo jail in Rio-
marks in thi\ area rs ofgreal hermeneulic imponance, hacha, or Angela Vicario exiling hers€lf 1o a village in lhe inlerior. In this
srnce il enables the
rcadcr-rnveslrgalor to rrace the movemenb ofthe victim broadest circle the fictional world blends with real geogaphy (fuohacha,
and the killers, bur
tbe_stmtegy of<pace presentarion adopred by Garcia Cartagena), but real-world localions lay far av/ay on lhe horizon, leaving the
Vdrquez allous only a
panral and relalivc situation of objecrs.
This srategy falls into a no-man.s town and ils surroundings a ftee-lloating area on the map ofcolombia.
r,ano Derween lhc various systems of represenling
space distinguished by
drscourse anatysjs:.\ie$er_retarive. absolule,
and objecr_relative (Tversky
,1996)
A viewer-relative descripnon {which cjn rak. it. p.op""tiu. of O'_
3 The Experiment
rner cnararter or Mrraror) presenb objects as being left. righL.
Dack ol_the obsen er. An absolule descripfion uses
i;fronl of, or
'n lhe coordinates soulh, To investigate the formalion of mental models of space I asked a group of
nonh.€ast and.we^sl. An objecGrelative description will
locare an object as high school studenls to dmw a map of lhe world of Chronicle of a Death
berng'rn Iiont of another. from this other objecas ,poinr_ot_view,;ihus
bench can be d€scribed as being in front of $e church,
a Foretold. The students, all college-bound seniors participating in an ad-
b€cause a church is vahced literature course, had read the novel in the sumrner of 2001. They
an asJrnmerical buitding. with an impticir fronr
flhe enrrance) and back. discussed it with their teacher for about three weeks in Decembfr 200 I and
:1* Yl'qi.,..
Iront and back door"-lg"crsionauy
rses rhe objecr-relative sysrem (i.e. rhe
o I Nasar.s house ). but the vasl majoriry
January 2002. The test took place before the classes mov€d on to the next
;f spati;t n;_ lext. Some ofthe sludenls may have re-read the book and some others may
not. There were about five copies of the text available for each class of
 224 / M^xl,t_^{xI lty^N
( lx,Nrr!L M^^ / l:)5
t$unr] stuJc, r, rnd \,me i,Irhdn us(J
rh( b,\,t ro r(nrL rbcr LL r,(1cr
name\: but rh!.re wA no timc lo chcck
lhe t(rl tor:p irt (u(i.
rim nor presentint thr, un.1.,1r1,n, d, r scrcnritic (\pcrinr(.Dt,
replaying drc h1e ol lhe hcro. Thc plot c
be rcplaycd in terms of lrvo pa-
b ramelcrsi thc spatial movcmenis ofNasar on lhc moming of his death, and
--
an rntormat rtlempt to probc into rcaders.mcmory and
ds
thc nclwork of inlcrp€nonal rclalions that caus€ his murder. The spatial
raKen rrcrc rn
rmrg,n rl,n r r(m)
mun tirerat ,cn,e: rhe raculrl ,. f"""-;:;,;i systcm explains the imponance of lhe rivcr, square, docks, bishop's boat,
's
whereas lhc screnrrfic approJch
,;;:.:
ro ndrcrr\e cogn ron iteconl(\lu!tizes front door of Nasar\ house, and narrator's house, rvhile the inlerp€rsonal
the
:,:":,,j:::ll!11**l: "adcr\
5'on.rrc\rs usuilly \o bl.rnd
$rrh re\r. .nccialy d,.:,irned ,.,
rtr:t nobodt wouU frarc rer,un ,.
i;.*;. syslcm produces the buildings associaled with the wedding (Angcla Vi-
cario's house, rhe widower Xius's house, Bajardo San Rom6n's holet), as
rcaliitL) anJ (\aluaGs menr,rt p.oces*e, ,...f if,_rf"
i" ,,,i.,fV q"r",,,r,,". ,"_.'trrr_ well as lhose directly involved wiih the killcrs' aclions (milk shop, lnife
alty thL lim( r.rten lo pcrform \pr.ufic
rJ,k\r. rhe i",ir*rf ,p"*ii. rl i.* shop, butcher's shopl). Of rhe irems ar lhe top of rhe lisr ihc Ieast con,
rup.esenr ivcs inctudc Vicror N<I
and Rr.h; nectcd lo thc characters and to the logic of thc plol are the church and the
,*o ,,".r of ,";;, ;;;; ,;;;;il,]:,l"ffil:;,:#il',;:,|"l-.n:
,h""
founlain. Thc church is the object of seveml texrual r€ierenccs. but it is
cnceot rerf narnti\c l(\rs- le\t\ $onh
r,.:JJin8 on ,fi"" most strongly called lo mind by the cover offic book, which shows a plaza
rs I \ r\urt form otscll_(xprcssron rt.,t
I rstctl th; s,r.l.";, """ ^"r;i.
[,li wilh an imposing Baroque cathedral. The fountain is harder to cxplain,
or lhe ropogr.rphrcat lryout of chronLtz ,. ;;,;;;.,;;;;
or F'^ /du I encoungcd since il is nol mentioned in the text nor depicted in an illustralion- My
lhc studcnr s to usc hcir imrgin ion
r
o h"n ,h"?f'l' . only explanation is tllat the sludenls used slandard cultural images of whar
.:i:
:::.;;;;;r;;;:ffi:J ;:ifi ffi
,,
:rt,: I 1:?,fl ",1;,i1,,"
l.Tlj" a South American plaza looks like; they may also have bcen influenced by
ithcrrJ,r'y sruaenr< p.nrcrpar(J in rhe c\penmenr. Uut
fi,e oi rtrenr rimiiea lhe cityscape oflheir homc town, Fon Collins, Colorado. Thc social center
niclure\ to thc 0oor ttln olNrsff:s hou.c. and onc ofFon Collins is indeed a pedestrian plaza with a fountain in rhe middle.
mJp. (Scc betow,ur the reason.) Ihe rerumert r blanl<
floor otx rn r(nerur much mom The bottom of the list (i.c. thc features mcntioncd only once or twicc)
3ccurdrc rhan rhe rJrs(r m,* il, ;. ** :;1"' ""te was divided behveen Iandscap€ elcments of purely atmosphere,crearing im-
lt::.:l,l"l.i: ;;..;;i i:;;::; l;T:;:l,t:::"*;;"i,*il,"'
; ponance (fields, mango grovc. flow€r pots, dogs, chicken coops, hills),
i\asar s rcmodehn8. ffd at5u beccuse
ir is houses of minor characters (Divina Flor, Pablo Vicario's fiancdc. Yamil
,h'arc prdc,j in.r;;; l;'"; ;i::;;'; ,i:il
&

il::.1il";:flilf.j,:
thc f3r rnor. compt(l trsl or dr.r$ur!
Shaiun) and non-iextual items brought into thc picture by cultural s€hc-

town. The brank mrp. hos(vcr. i\ rnrp , mala, personal expcriencc, or (l suspecl) by the purc pleasure of l€ ing thc
rJren inro considc.,i." ii "f,'f,.. "r,li"
,rr. ,i",;,ii""i imaginalion loose: cemclery, cactus, school, cow pen ncar thc milk shop,
",,'.;1. '^1.,: ll
*" *
..!irded as cn cmpo rcpre\enrarrun oI rhc
rown. restaurant, drugstorc, cofee shop, ghetto, trailer park, beach, and ev€n a
rn,e\prc$ron ot- rerdcrs.r!,pre.cnrarion road sign poinliog 10 lhc U.S. Thc maps lvcre jusr as revealing of lheir
of rte
- cri bc (ldlu.Ied in lerrn\ of rlx.e(. crir. . rnventory' *oria, rte
_^s
mrls rerrr,.rt
authors'conceptualizations of rhe plot lbr what thcy omitt€d as for what
tions, and mapping srylc. ""cflA: spalial rela-
they included or added. In g€neral. the landmarks menlioned in rhc eady
episodes were much bctler represented than ihe fcatures of tbc later ones.
3.1 Inventory Thc sc€ne ofthe bishop's visit on a river boai, told in thc firsr seclion, had
a slrong impact on the readers' imagination (78% drew thc river, 40% drew
F)'rmining in term\ olrnvcnrury 6s3n5 pylng
rna,ns
flrenuon lo $hrt Lind the bishop), while the dramaric last scene, in which the modally wounded

i::r":j:,,::"T,,T1,-9"
on rheir drauing. io *rr",e
ur ornLr sourccq dnd r,, uh.r lh\. \ule.rion
rrrer.bj..,,;;; Nasar slaggcrs through lhe neiShbor's housc and sces the narmlor's aunt

lhe map maker's conceDtuai%ri.n nf rl,. lc s us aboLrl

^t^, I l-ncnlly st aking rh.re is no butchcr shop in rhe t xl, th. brolhels rai$ and sl.uahrc!
ri,,.,r,i r..q""iii;l#H:,ijhi,:j,:::J:,iJ:,fi iif i.J
pas,nery.''-i so ll(
pigs. and kccpktrivcs in then shop Thcy selllhcne0l at rhc ncal markcr Applyins
rhe mo\r prominenr trndmark is
,r," r,"r,_ r},il.*i_ culluEl schcma ol the loNn \quaic as shotping ccnrer, lhc r.dde6 who mentioncd th.!
g(sls thal rltc drd$ingj aru ptol_cenlcred.
$hich mean\ "r\"r"r.
lhul the maD malieE
l@ations lurned rhe workshop into a hnifc sroe, nnd lhe mear ma*ct inro r burhcr nr't'
,ek,c\e riom memoD rhe 5rticnr rerur."
of Ltc fi.,il,] ;.;; ilftl;t,; ThLy also lddcd n coflce shoD.lhourh ir is.l Pablo vicaio s fimcdct hou* rhal llk tilld,
 226l M^RE-L^[jRE RYAN
CocNrnvE M^$/ 22?
across the river, left minimal cartographic traces: only 4 maps (1o/o)
tnfx,_
tioned the neighbor's house, and none included the house of Wene carcia. to all the buildings that belong lo rhe cultural image of a town, even
This suggests that in reading matters as in other domains of experience, the though such buildings are usually hidden in the outskirts.
firsl impression is the strongest: The representation of textual'worlds gels Ifwe discount the placement of some items too mrely mentioned to be
early on. provrding lo the imagination a playfield for rhe moves of chaiac_ statistically significant, the largest proportion of €rrors concems the most
lers, and il expands from a dmse core which r€mains vividly inscribed in important landmarks: the house of Nasar and the nilk shop. How in par-
memory. ticular can we explain lhe fact that only l?% of informanls located Nasar's
house corrEctly between the square and lhe rive.? I believe lhal misplace-
3.2 Sprtirl Relations m€nts are due to an ambiguous distribution oftextual information, The text
scatters hints that Nasar's house is close to the river as well as hinls that it
Tho evaluation ofspatial relations is much more diffrcult rhan the is on the squar€, but it never presents these hints in the same passage, nor
analysis
of the inventory because it deals with scalar ralher than binary categ#es: does it explicitly menlion that the squarc is close to the river-a mandatory
While an item is or isn't on lhe map (the only doubt here is what the-reader inference, ifNasar's house borden on both.
meant wilh lhe lab€l), il can be located at variable distances from anolher But the factors lhat delermine the placement of buildings are nol rlec€s-
item. How close, for instance, does a house have to be ftom the river lo sarily textual. In their mapping ofthe lextual world, many studenls seem to
t€
scored as 'on the river'? ( In my evaluation I used the criterion have started with the two most important landscape features, the dver and
lhat an item
is next to another iflhere is no olher item in between.) olrce we decide on the square. Olher objects could have b€en added according to one or the
crireria, though. rfie diagramming of spatial relations can be scored in olher of two drawing strategies: eilher cluster objects arcund the two arF
a
more rigorous way than the mapping of what is ihere. Inventories are more chors; or lry lo fill the empty space between the square and lhe river, so as
or less complete. bu never tolally wrong, since the presence of non_texirral to produce a *ell-balanced picture. Students may also have been reluclant lo
can be anributed to the imaginarive need to nesh oul rhe rexhral erase a false slarl dlat bn no room for prop€r localion. Purcly graphic con-
'lems Bul in rheir representahon ofsparial relations,
world. siderations may thus explain why a large percenlage (41%) ofthose students
the skerches can be
shown ro be accurale or inaccurate on lhe basis ofsolid rextual who had both a river and a square on their map placed Nasar's house at a
cvidence.
. I
Table summarizes findings for a group ofkxrually verifiable sparial distance ftom both of these landmarks.
relalions.,Most of lhese relarions selecl the ;quare as anchor point,
a deci_
sionjLnified by ils rhematic and strategic prominence. even rirough. as ue 3.3 M.pping Style
have s€en. fte lext dofs not systematically use it as spariat poini
ot refer_
A map, technically, is a model ofa rEference world drawn from a verlical
enc€. The lowesl percentage of enor concems rhe ptacement
;f rhe chtlrrh
p€rspeclive. Its symbols arc conventional mlher than iconic. This is also
and ofthe widower Xius's house. The location of ihe church on the
square
is rnultiply enforced by textual description, cultural schemata, and the known as a plan view. A picture, by conlrast, is a represenlation dl:twlr
cover's illustration. As for the widower Xius,s house, it is the subject mat- from a horizontal poinl ofview. It attempts to reproduce the visual per€ep
ter ofa memorable episode, during which the texl makes il very tion ofan observer, and its elemenls are iconic. This is known as an ele\a-
clear that it
is situaled on a hill at a distance from the tolln center. The irems thar rion or perspective view. Most maps, however, conlain iconic elements and
fa
in.the middle range ofenors (60-800/0) display a tendency to bring elevation symbols: for inslance the church in the masler map. Conversely,
sr-ategi_
cally important characters or localions from the periptery toward itre mfuly pictures tend toward the plan-mode by capturing a wide-angle and by
centir:
Angela is a main character; she must therefore be localed at the hean selecting an el€vated point ofview. Table 4 represents the various mapping
of the
action. The knife,shop'(see note l) is moved lo the square not only styles chosen by the sludents. 'Pure plan' tolerates elevatior-style el€ments
be_
cause of its connection to the killers, themselves impo.t-t only for the sake of differentiation: for instance, the church icon on the mas-
Uot
also as parl ofthe commercial zone tha! sunounds the plaza."t"r""t"rs, ter map allows lhe viewer 1o distinguish two types ofbuildings, churches
The misplac_
ing of lhe brothel firnher suggesrs a tendency to allocate a central location and houses. 'Iconic plans' are consistenlly represeoted from a verlical p€r-
spcclive, bul thcre is an allempt at reproducing visual perceplion. Thes€
plans show for instance lhe pilch of roofs, the waves on the river, the peb-

228/MARr;LAIRr,RYAN
river, the pebbles on roads. 'Mixed plan-picnrre' adopts a vertical point of
view but represents many el€ments in elevation, usually houses. 'Prcdomi-
nanily piclorial repres€ntation' selecls an obliquc point ofview, and while it
shows spatial relations, it attempts to convcy a sense ofwhat the landscape
looks like. Pure irmge renounces the clevatcd point ofview altogether. The
four nraps discusscd hcrc wcre calegorized as follows: Figures I and 2,
'pure plan';Figurcs 3 and ,l, 'mixed plan-picture'.
Thc naps do nol mercly represent the world of Crrcnicle of a Death
they also tell thcir own story tbe story ofthe reader's reading.
^Fol"lol./,
Here I will discuss briefiy the mapping slrategies and nanative emphasis of
three olthe sketches. The cremplcs wcrc selecled for their diversity, as well
as for their (obviously rclativc) accuracy in terms ofeither richness of in-
ventory or reprcsentation of spatial relations.
fi 11C""'4 fti,..
s
5f- (\
P..v,
Figure 2. Map ofcharact€r Movem€na
3.3,1 Map ofcharacter Mov€ment
The map represented in Figure 2 could havc been produced by a detcctivc
investigating the case. Consistcnlly drawn from the vertical perspeclive ol a
city plan, it combines ti'ne and space by representing thc rcspcclivc itincrnr-
ies ofNasar and tbc killers. It is one ofthe few sketchcs tbal phccs N sar's
house both on ihe squarc and closc to the docks. Thc Iinc ol thc nr.rtr,
'ivcr
COCNTTIVE MAPS / 229
anders away fiom Nasar's back door, but lhis is consistcnt with lhe lext'
since the river is said to hav€ changcd ils colrse since Ibrahim Nasar ac-
quired the warehous€. The two-directional anolv for lhe murderers' itinerary
irom their slaugbtering shop 1() the milk stole indicales the;r hck-and forth
movemenl itself a sympton of their hesitalions: They take knives from
their shop, go to thc milk store, return home, get ncw knives, and go back
to the milk store. The map, drawn by a male student, conc!'ptualizes lb€
plot as theinteraction of three parties, all rcpresented by male characters: the
qhich
irusbanr:I, Nasar, and the killcrs. visual delails are generallv omi$ed,
Though
makcs it all the more suprising to find a fountain on the square.
the fountain is not a texlual element, it heips diffcrentiate the town square
ftom thc other squarc shapes on the map.
r,"'SSq"l"''"
ir.n\,.1.:
Figur€ 3. SYmbolic MaP
3.3.2 Symbolic Map
With its drarving ofthe lown square thc intersections of thc lwo arms of
as
a gigantic cross, the map representedin Figure 3 privileges graphic design
rnd symbolic nreanirrg over the logic of thc plol. Was the Inap naker (fe-
nrrlc) nrflucnccd. Dcrhrps subconsciously, by rhe religious thcme of thc

230 / MAR'r-LauRE RYAN
novel and by lbe crossings of$e squarc performcd by Nasar and Angela?
(Nasar, rhe innoccnt who dics for anodrcr. is a Christ figure who ends up
Iiterally crucified on the front door of his house ) The doninanr episode
hc.€ is the wedding ofAnseh lnd Bajardoi no explicit mention is rnade of
the murder. But the map alludes lo thc killcrs'anbush ofNasarbv situating
the milk shop cttercomer from Nasar's house, with nothing in between lo
block the view of the brothers. Anolhcr diagonal runs from fie brothel 1o
ft€ wedding house, suggesting thc conlrast of maniage and proslitution'
while a symbolic triangle links thc Vicario house to the church and 10 lhe
wedding house, bypassing the brotbcl: tbc triangle of socially approved
marital lovc. One ofthc apexes ofthc trianglc is a building eilhe. misplaced
or invented by the maIJ naker: ln thc tcxt lhe wedding takes place at the
Figurc 4. Sloryspsce Map
I
CocNrnvri M^r's / ll I
I
3.3.4 Storyspace Map
Many oflhe maps lcll mc lhat the ltssi8flmcnt Na5 a chore for the canogm-
phc.. Thc reads (his or her gendcr was lcfi unspccificd) vho produced thc
map r€presenred in Figure 4 took it as an opponuniry to let the imaginarion
embroider new lales on the canvas oflhc nanative world. On lhe borderline
belwecn map (venical perspecrive ol lhe spatial layout) and illustralion
(ftontal pc.spcctivc ofrhe individurl objccts), rhis drawing may not meet
the highest standards of acc racy in thc a(:a of tcxtual topography, but it
captures bcautitully lhe verve, iall-Ule cxaggcrations, and gossipy quality of
Garcia Mdrquez' nanalivc stylc-a stylc deeply influ€nced by oral sloryiel-
ling. Wilh the Hauowcen motif in thc fbrcground, the beach and sea mon-
st€rs in the background. and lhc shopping mall lining Main Street, the map
tums the South American towr into a hybrid of amusemcnt park rnd
American city. But the lbcmalics oflhc novel are not enlirely forgottcn. By
making the church. on lhc lcfi, ard lhc brothel. on the right, the two salicnl
features ofthe landscapc, Ihc drawing suggesls the ambiguous opposjtion
thal dominates the litc oflhc loNnspcoplc: Should $e read it as good vcr-
sus evil (as vould the oflicial idcolosy), or as the repression vcrsus thc
liberation ofsexual energies? Sacrificing tcxtual accuracy ro symbolic mctn-
ing, the drawing mdencores the public nature olthe murder and the com-
plicity oflhe whole torvn by moving the dcalh ofNasar from the doorsteps
ofhis house io the c€nter ofthe plaa.
4 Discussion
4.1 From Cognitiv€ Maps to Grrphic Maps
What can we lcam {iom lhis experiNent about the importance of cognilive
mapping, or mental modcls of space, 1br nanative comprehension? Il is
imponant to avoid confusing thc sludcnts' sk€tches with their purcly men'
tal models ofnanative space. Thc drawings are in a sense the exacl oppositc
ola cognitive map: Whereas cognitivc maps intemalize an experiencc of
space rvhich is usually based on v'sual cues (studying a graphic map; walk-
through a city; scanning a rcxr2),lhe sketches drawn by the studenrs arc
gaphic
'ne lranspositions ofmenhl imagcs. Even though the experiment was
conducted inlormally rather than staged in the controlled environment
thought to be necessary to scicnlific risor, il cannot avoid the tundamental
I r orc Q\c olblind Fopl. foni'rg r rcfro\cn[tion ol thc a@neemcnl ol thct houscs
 v
232l M^Rrtr-L^rRF RY^N CocNlrlvl,M^rs/!lt

ambiguity of scientilic obscrvation, an ambiguity known in lheoreljcal
physics as lhc unccrtainty pr'nciple and in lhe social sciences as lhe
Ilali.thome principle.l This principle stales thal scientiiically observed facts
are al lcasl parlly crcalcd by Ihe prcscnce ol the observer and the tcchniquc
ofmcasuremcnt. A graphic map is a heurisric tool that feeds back into the
reader's mental imagc, shaping i1 through lh€ very process of repr€senling
ir. In rny orisinal innervision ofthc rvorld of Crro,ticlc ofa Dean Forc-
tdil, for instanc€, I placed the river al the boltorn, but lvhen I drew lhe mas-
ler map I changed ils posilion to rcmain consislenl wilh the cdographic
convenrion ofplacinS lhe no(h at lhe top cnd the south at thc bottom. I
used lo visualize lhe mov€mcnls of Sanliago Nasar as going down 10 the
rivet but aller drawing the map I rcversed my mcntal sccnario. Similarly,
the buildings that I arbilrarily localcd on the diagram no longcr float in
rpace. hur occuny \pccific coo'din]lcs in ny inncr !irion.
By asking th€ studcnls to draw a map rather than a picture, I implicitly
imposed a visual form on lhc graphic transposition oflhcir mental images.
(As Tablc 4 shows, however, many of thc sludenls resisrcd rhis suggestion
by choosing a comprcmise bctween thc map and thc picture.) Most studcnts
(larded thc cxpcri crt as an oppoftunity lo dcvclop ralher than minor a
issuc of lhe rescmblancc bctween grapbic and ncntal naps and of thc im-
ponancc ofvisualizalion for lhe construclion of spalial models hlts reccivcd
considcrablc attention in cognitive sciencc ln work datin8 back 1o thc six-
lies,lhc cogritive psychologist Allan P.livio (1986) suggcsted that infonna-
rion cnn bc storeJ in eithcr pictorial or Proposilional, quasi-verbal form'
depcnding on the mindstylc of thc subjcct (somc pcople arc 'visualizcrs'
*trite others are noo ana on lhe nalure of the datr. Somc typcs of infonna_
lion for inslance tbe mcaning ofa sentcnce likc 'the cat chascd the dog'-
can bc slorcd in bolh forrns Nhile other lypes ('l think lhcreforc
I am') can
only be slored verbally. This is known in cognitive psychology as lhe
'dual-coding' thcory (Esrock 1994: 96-104). A nlcntal model of a narrative
world is cl€arly a type ofinlormalion that can bc represcnted both wavs
Ijxperincntal rcsearcb on lhc nalure and tunciioning of mcntal models
of spa;c rssociaied Nith texls hrs lakcn tNo dircctions The first
(Bo|cr
and Monow 1990; Monow, Bolvcr, and Greenspan 1989) consists of ask-
in8 subjccis to nemoriTr a grapbic map b-lbrc reading a story thal takes
olicc in rhc rcpre.cnrcd .crline Bu$cr and lvlono\t hrvl'Jrgued thar r'rdels
pcrform on mudels lhc sarnc llp(' ol oNroliun' lhcy would on 3
'uch 1

;raphic map. The lravel of characlcrs is simulalcd by locating then on the

vision ofthc tcxtual world, but at lcast onc ofthem look the assignment as ."ntof *op, moving them from spot to spol, and visualizing the objects
a lileral invitalion lo rcproduce a prc-exisling imagc. This studenl declincd them al €vcry slop. It lakes a bnger lim€ lbr subjccts to
lhal sunound
10 dralv a map, juslilying his or bcr decision with the comment 'I never co!(rs a lonB ditunce on lhe cognrlrlc map lhon Io
im.,:rne lr.trcl rhJt I

gave any thought at all to trying ro placc locarions in rclationship to one clr.rra.rer. bet!\ecn clo'c locarron'. rnd objecrs locrrcd near
anolhcr or map lhem while rcading lhe te\l . Bul a menlal model of narm-
-"nr.'lru -ure l
rhc characler's currcnt coordinates are more easily rclricved from mcmory
I
tive space dcvcloped through the drawing ofa map is no lcss legiiimate as a than objects localcd far away from lhc characler whilc this rcscarch dcmon-
response to the texl Ihan an inlerprelation lormed aiier discussing a book possibilily of nrap.likc mcntrl modcls of space, ils r€l€vancc to jr
sralcs ihe
with friends or revisiting thc text mentally afier other input. Rcading ard thc processing ofnan ivc lexls is at besl limiled lo thc case of novcls thal
intcrprcting a text, cspecially a lilcrary one, are nol mental activiries thal incln<le a graltric map Swift's Gutlit'ct s Travels. Roben Louis I
ltonathan
stop when thc eye moves alvay from its visual inscriplion- There arc indeed
ste'ensont L.a'raz Michel Butot's L Enploi du tentps' Jealt
readen who sponlaneously drarv sketches of liciional worlds to clariry their L\el's Thc Shetets ^/ar.r,
ofStone,e\. ).
cognilivc maps.4 The second lype of rcsearch (Tverskv 1991. 1996; Ferguson and He-
The fact rhat the students rcprescntcd rheir view of thc textual world in prrlv 1994) addr('\e' lhe issu( of thc lorrslruclion of menul map' from a 1

map or semi-map form does nol nccessarily mcan thal mental models of i,".i' rc*r'"r inDur. gut rr tcnd' ro Jcrl \irh shon de'crrpli\e le\ls rhal l
space conslructcd on the basis of narralivc texts rcsemble graphic maps as io'"pioun,-trt. or''prce for rnsronce. l(rsuson and ll$anv
does, for inslance, our intcmal reprcsentalion of tbe map of the world. The '.p'"'"nr,rion
(1994) askcd informants to draw a skelch map on the basis ofthis passage:
'Ihc liltlc lown oi Crellview is an old nining lown 'lo reach Crestvicw

lfor r by c.r. drive nonh along lhe highNav. Crestliew begins when vou $oss
dcfinilion ol thc principlc and d skctch ol ih brcksround, scc
lhe Grccn Riler. Thc ri!$ flows out of somc low hilh $ar lie on vour
hltnt/u\cu.net I inc nc1/rlc/dcc3.hhr.
4 See lnr i'uiancc rhc skcr.h.s ol Vlrdinir Ndb.k.! in rh. ro
lcfi. Ju\t rll.r you drnc acrcss, vou can scc C.esrview HiSb School'
'lhe smail
which lics on lhc b.ck lo vou! lcfi.t rhc basc of th' hills
I lcli and orclidc! rhe conneclion 10

j
 234 / MARrE-l-^(nE RYAN CoaNmvE M^ps / 235

the high $hool from lhe highway. On your righr, directly acros! fton
perspective, it seems safe lo assurne that lhese images will be constructed
the enrcnce to Frontier Road, you pass a ga3 starion. Th€ gas starion is
on the basis of infomation slorcd in long-term memory.s
on lhe river bmk, and fishing bait and tackle ce be purchased the.e.
The divergence ofthe students' sketches ftom the master map can be at-
(Fe.guson and Hegarty 1994: 472)
tributed in pan to the fact lhat the master map is only one possible way to
This type of data is not panicularly us€tul for th€ investigation of lh€ im-
represenl the textual world. But I would like to suggest lhat it mainly de
portance ofcogritiv€ maps for lhe processing ofs€mantically complex liter-
rives from the !'ansient nature of short-term memory. The masler m6p of
ary texls that treat space as a stage for naamtive action. [t should come as no
Figure I reprcs€nls an attempt to r€tain the images of short-term memory,
surprise that lhe sketch maps obtained by Ferguson and Hegarty (194)
to tum them into cadographic symbols, and to situate them on lhe global
were infinitely more failhful lo the text than the drawings of my infor-
map of long-term memory. But on lhe sketchpad of short{erm memory, the
mants.
visualizltions generated by lhe individual scenes merely rcplace each other.
The maps I collected seem far too incomplete, the salient features too
Thc reader may thus be p€rfectly .ble to imagine the story's main episodes
.andonly distribut€d on the page, and the rcFesentation of spatial relations wilhout precisely situating cach event on a global map. Or ifthe reader do€s
too inaccurate to suggesl lhat therr authoas followed the narmlive by mov-
indeed situale evmts, the cmrdinaies may b€ forgotten when lhe ncxt ev€nt
ing the image ofNasar on the mental equivalenl ofa comprehensive plan of
fills the screen ofthe mind. If spatial imagination proceeds piecemeal, \rie
'' tbe lown, as a pat\lr is moved on a gameboad. This does not mean that
,
will situate site a with rcspect to site ,; then site with respect to site c
readers do not form vivid mental pictures of the hero at vaiious poinls in
when a charact€r is shown moving between these points, but we will not
his itinemry. Even the authors ofthe sloppiest drawings may have been able
necessarily situate d with respect to a in our menlal model. ln othe. Nords,
to visualiz€ Nasar leaving his house, waiting for the bishop by the docks,
we m.y be able to imagine very vividly Nasar luming the comer ftom his
heading home lhrough lhe str€el$ tuming the comer to the square, being
fianc&'s house into Ihe lown squarc. Then we may visualize, again very
anacked by his front door, or entering lhe kitchen lo die- But these individ-
vividly, Nasar walking loward lh€ front door ofhis hous€. But lr,e will not
ual visualizations are too ephememl to be assembled into a global r€prcsen-
visualize his path it its entirety, and we will not cr€at€ a global map that
tation compamble to the master map ofFigure l.
encomp6sses the square, lhe fianc€e's house and Nasar's house. As Stephen
Kosslyn found, 'suilably instructed subjects could either move the focus of
4.2 Cognitive Meps rnd Memory Processes
a mcntal ihage by continuous scanning ofa path from start to fidish, or by
discrete jumps in the mental image' (Bower 6nd Morrow 1990: 47). We
To understand the disparity and relative inaccuracy of the studeots' sketches
make use of this faculty to jump when one of lhe partial msps of shon-term
we must take into consideration the full complexity of the r€ding process.
menory has been replaced by anolher.
As the cognitive scienlisls Ma$chark and Comoldi observq 'fllext proc-
The act ofreading has often been compared to i;cinerna tlflre mi;a) If
essing simuhaneou{y "occurs" al several diflerent le!els, conesponding lo
the metaphor is accuale, we construd $e story scme by scene. as a series
words. senRnces. paragraphs, passages' (1991: 165). To lhis lisl one may
of carnera shots or'fietds ofvision', as Gabriel Zoran (311) has called these
add the level of the global meaning or narralive macro-structue. Reading
discrete mental units. Wlen we watch a movie, we see individual images of
also involves two levels of memory: Whereas the global representation is
the strategic locations oflhe narr.tiv€ wodd-for instance, the hero's hous€,
slored in long-term memory, smaller lexlual units afect primarily what has
been called the skelcb-pad ofshort-lerm, or episodic, memory. It is on this
5 Thc coSn iv. psychologisr B*bao Tv.cky (1996) h6 dgucd rlBl n.nbl nod.ls of
sketch-pad that readers form their most delailed visualizations. My pe$onal
exp€rience tells me that these visualizalions are picturelike representations spee co$lruclcd on tb. basis of tcxb are nenher naplikc ior touFlik€ in nsturc, bur ma-
that encompass bolh the cha$cter and the chascler's field of vision. we s€€ nipulable inages which do nol cone with r 6rcd pcrep.dive. Adopting diflirc points ol
the chsracten, but we also see with them, and we share their horizontal view on rneir mental nodcls, r.ad.B can dsqe. 'naplild qudio.s ('n a nodh or euth ot
point ofview. Ifwe arc able lo contemplate textual spac€ from a bird's<ye b')on lhe oflouFlikc dc$.iption, ed lolrlikc qucstioi ('what des a t v.l4 sc on
basis
fi. bn rns pNinelhc lalc') on fic bais of haFlikc d€$ipliG. Tvc6&y'3 nndinss,
howcvcr, werc obbined 6 lhc basis of shoft r*rs dclsiv.ly feBd on rpaiial chdd!
?-16 / M^Rn, L^!Rl' l{Y^N

the ncighbor's house, thc high school, lhe hcro's \ork placc, son)c strccts
oflhe town in the mo'vie Aneican Bcar4-but we are usually uMblc to
! .t.l 'l'hc Construclion of Cognitivc Maps
C(x;NllrvliM^1's/217

menlal nodels of
Wc cxn only speculate about thc dvnamic lbmraiion of
locate ihese sites wirh respecr ro cach otber.6 Our nc'ntal model of thc nir-
rative world of,,lDer,.d, Bead), is not a cily pl,rn taken from a bird s-eye 1", seems evi<lcnr that h differs ftom the produciion of lhe
ii
perspeclive but rather a slereotypcd image (American small town), and a "^-"it".
*'-t., .- ,ta of rruphrc mrps in gcrrcral To dr:rw thc maslcr map I
collection ofsnapshors oirhe fields ofacrion. Novels are more condu€ive ro one xs I trcnr
.i,*d '"',; " blanl pagc. addctl it'rtirl fearure' onc bvplacemenr
lhe conslrucdon ofplanlike modcls ofspace than movies because the rEad€r
ii-'O tr," ,.", and i ri:locatcd rbesc fcaturcs whcn mv on the
sets his own pacc (hrough lhe story. and also because their abstracr signs
;.';;;J ro conllcr $irh lrrcr rnlbrmarion lr rook a lor ol €rrsing'
leave more room to the imaginalion. Ilut lhe example of movies tells us "r'
rtuowine rsar ver'ion" anLl 5(3ning ovcr liom scralLh lo creae
a map con-
that mosl plois can be followed wirh the help of very rudimenlary sk€tches
.r'i*i il'r' i'r," The novcl ofTcrc'l f$ more spcrial informcrion rhrn
ofglobal spacc. The role ofmcnlal maps is Io providc a common back- .l -.tnot .ourA "" hold :rnd lh' mrpping dclilirv $ould nol hrve b'Ln
ground to the individual nnag€s (or 'liulc movies') of short-term memory, Tbc producriun ol the mo'rer mnp turrhcr
iis.tbi; '"'ih"* " oi*" "rnrp€r'
allowing thcsc irdividual imagcs lo cohere into a world and a story. Bur
ie,cmUte.r rn,r of a s,aphii rnar iD lhc sen'e llal lhc
dra$rng fhase $rs
a].ti-* i.- ,rl" *iig pr'ase : it is ontv al ihe cnd of rhe surveving
the background is not consrrucrcd by filting togelher the images of short- work
lerm mcmory like the pieces ol a puzzlc, for lhis would mean lhal long- of characters across nar_
that my map allowed me to rclracc the movemenls
t€rm memory collects everyrhing rhat affecrs shortlerm memory, and also
-.
that comprehcnsive images oftcxtual st'ace cannot be fully formed before ro strphic mrps. mcntrl mJpt rre dtr\\n and u'ed bv
;-l;"i'*t rhe
the end ()1 lhe text. Ifmenral maps hclp readers tbllow lhe plot, they ff) con-
sam€ individual, *a-,t" p.o""t""" of survcving
and consulting
-ar€
needed throughout the reading proccss. I beli€le rhercfore that readers work maps to follow the
;;"J;l'"."t ii.uttun"o.'.tv Rcaders ne€d m€ntal
from the vcry beginning with o global, bur very schcmatic, vision of thc
i* in.t .on.rruc rhc,.l rn.tps on rhc basit of lhe plot our of rhc
spatial configuration ofthe texrunl lvorld.
l'"'..*"
"r.t. oi.r',,*,".. twhir Zt'r3n lllllcrlls chronoropic space) $e con-
The items mosl frequently includcd on rhe studcnts' sketches give us a
good idcaofs'hat permanent landnrarks readcrs find indispensable to makc
.i*ci" gfouf 'lsi.t tZ"ran's lopographic space) lhai cnables us lo situalc
a bottom-up act'v-
evenrs. i/hite this global vision is conslructed through
thcmselves at home in thc \!o(ld of Chruniclc ofa Death Foretold: to\!n,
ir, ;ip..'iJ..,"p a."" tuidancc to rhe explorer ofthe textual world This
a river, a public square, r church, and a housc for the main charactcr.^ Thcsc is the cognit;ve implemen-
i'it".pi"y oru"to--p -a top'down processes
landmarks surround a drarna thlt involves Naiar and the chanctcrs associ- circlc
atcd wirh the next lew ilcns oll (hc frcqucncy lisrr Angela, San Roman
'-'' oflhe henn€neulic
htion
mental model of space lo simu-
sinlc lhe rcrdeis inagination nccds a
(widower Xius's/newlywcd's housc) and thc killers (nilk shop6ar). The
lalc the narrative action, ii is inrportant to achicve a holislic
reprcsentalion
sludcnls' sketches rnay not bc transparcDt imag€s of cognitive maps, but possible' In 3' the most lie
.i,rl.-r"*ii"" *-ra ^ quicklv as Table
thcy provide a useful documcnt oflhc scleclivc work of long-term ncmory. A.t*,-rr. intl':c'l rll lMdse'pe lfatur$ thal appecr rn
In thcir emphasis on ch.raclcrs' houscs lhey conoborate the obscNalion of "r".tft
it* i.,i "..*;"^
r.i" ori". l $onld tike ro tpeculcre rhrr oncc rhe nap
Ralf Schn€ider: 'readcrs focus thck inlcrcst in th€ ficlional world on the "r'n"
i^. t*t..""]rt 'kel.hed. "ov{ltr $rll bc r(lrlireb ro new inpul or
'esishnl
characters ralher than, for instance, fictionaltime or space or narrative situa-
;-;d'fi";t;;; \ilren ncw intbnnation coniicrs with the reade's m€ntal
tions' (2001: 628). Mental models of narrative space are centered on the .oa"f of"pa"". ;t ;. to concenlralc on the visualization of the cunent
characters, and lhcy grow out of lhrm, in contrast lo the stage setting of a
.i"'". "uri"r
ai.crcp.rncv. rhrn lo ruorgani"e rhc \holc mrp ftis
play, $hi€h nonnally starts out as a Iirlly fumished bui unpopulated space, ""a';*""* 'rt.
*."i0.-tui" rhe 'nacc,raci". of rhc *rudcnrr' mrp' srrh respecl ro rhc
and gradually fills up with €haractcrs. is accuratc' the relative stabiliry of mcn-
terter ofrtre rext. Ifrtris trypolhesis
;;i;.d.l; tirlr rhc charucrer of chamcrer modcl'
"a;",;"."",,;srs 'lvnamic
ii.r'""a.' zoor, olSr' wlrctL'rs sprcc runcrions 3sd baclsroud chirrcrLr\ \
6
vics ol ,,,rrl.., 1Jr.r4, Eivcs us a good idea ofsh.r shereas \pace mainly (orr
to*n rhll hcsiN srand in the foreground ofnsnili!c rnlcresll and
The bird s-eye rhe
lind ol to\rn lhis is, bd n is not vcry usclirl ir hclpiDs th. spccralor co.ceprualize sparial
si.i' or p"""".J"t r""o."s. characlers re evolving bodies and mi s $lrr
 238/ M^RrL-L riR[ RyAN
CocNrllvri M^Ps/ 239
continuously add events to their p€rsonal hislory. It seems reasonable
lo
expect that the charying foreground will be the object of a more 5 Clotild. Armnts's milk shop / bar, where kille6 wait (26)
inl€nse
updating aclivity lhan the stable background. 6 Bench, wherc killersf.ll aslecp (6)
While lhe r€ader's explodion of rhe t€xlual world 7 Square and alno'd lre.s (squarc, 37)
_ is
of construcdng th€ map as she goes along. rhe map_makini
rhe. necessity
complicated by
8 Old docks
activity is somewhat simplified by rfie facr rhar rhe rnap does noi have 9 New docks, where people wait for bishop (docks or boardwalk: 34)
tJ
meet the need! ofany other user. published maps conlai; inform6tion l0 Bishop's boat (22)
for a
wide vadety of useB, both travelen and dr€amen: they must cons€quently I I Hous. of nanaror's fanily (7)
include-an cqually wide vdiety of possible landmarks, destinations, 12 Bajardo San Romin's hotel (?)
anl
routes- But the m€ntal map of a textual world is exclusively gearcd 13 Angcla Vicario's hoB. (3 I ) (+ 3 nentions of 'vicario brolbeB' ho$c)
lowatd
lhe mind_ that con5rruc6 ir. Though one cannor speak of a ipecific 14 Pissty in Vicario yad (2)
desrina-
tron ln the case of namtive texls_here the goal to be reached is a rich 15 Vicario n€ighbo.'s hous., borrowed for wedding (4)
rmag'native experienc€ oflhe entire aclion and a !€asonabte understanding 16 House of widower Xius, bought by Baja.do San Romrn ro livc th€r€ with
ofnarmtive logic- {}e nenral map of a lexrual world car, fulfill Ansela (27)
its cogni:
nve function ofgefling the reader into lhe narative without being 17 Bothcl of Alejandrina Ccrvr es (12)
conpilte,
or narrowly faithful to lhe text. As I obsaved atove, peopte iaa I 8 Med ma*el Odcher 22; ma*et, 2)
tor Oe (l)
plot and not for the map, unless Ihey ale literary cartographers. 19 Hous. of Prudencia Coles, Pablo vicario's fiancac
We con-
stnrct rnental models of narmtive space only as far as we f;nd a cognitive 20 Jail (8)
advanrage in rhis aclivity---only as far as is needed to achieve immers]on 2l Yamil Shaium's house (l)
in '
lhe lextual world.T 22 Hous€ ofFlora Miguel, Santiago Na$r's fianc€e (7)
23 Hous€ of W.nef.ida M6.qucz, th. namtor's aun! (0)
App€trdh
T.bL 2:
TibI.l: Th. Mort Oft.n Metrtior.d lt.n3 or tte M.pt
Leiend ao Figure I
Featu.€s numb.rcd in the approxim6te o.dd of lhcir m€nrion in the F€atur. (*=Not Mcntioned in Texo
lcxr.
Numb€r in p6rcnrhees = numb€r of me ions (out ot 5j) in student (our of 55)
maps.
Santiago Nasar's houlc 54 9E
I Sanriaao Nas&'s hou$. (Murdcr by frcnt door, d.arh in kirchen by back Riv.r 43 ?8
d@r) (54) Squarc 37 67
2 The Divine Face, Sanliaso Nasar's ranch (2) Docks 32 58
3 Neighbor s house, through which Nasar ges throush afte. Angela vicario's house 3l 56
b€ing monally
wound.d (4) Church (€thedral) 30 54
4 Church (30) Widorcr Xis'J nc*lywcds' how 27 49
25 45
Milk srore/bar^aloon 23 4t
? Tbis 22 40
aiiiclc ofa targ€r prc).cr, Llerarr Carto{aphr, suppofted by r gnnt from th.
i3 pan Bhhop on boat
Gugeenheim Folnd.tion. t would lik. !o thank Den M.sha dd his l2,r gFdc Bulcher (rburcher shop) 22 40
in
th. Inlcdgtional Bsccal.urelrc pbSnm at poudre Hign School, Fon Collils! 'luddls
CotoEdo, for
Front door of Nasar's hous€ l8 32
t2 2t
 240/ MaRrrr-L JRE Ry^N
(lxiNr Iv! M.,\r's / 241
Tlbte 3:
Repie3.n.ratotr of Sprrilt R€trrtorj References
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:l_elevant
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aI $e tocations narncd n rhe
dorov, I l-17. Cambridg€: Carnbridge.
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thar have bo
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Bjomson, R 1981. Cognitivc Mapping ald rh€ Undersranding of Lit€rarure.
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Denis, M. lD6. Imagcry and thc Dcscriptioo or Spatial Conliguratiors. Mod?k
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Dlaz-Migoyo, G 1988. Truth Disguis€d: Chronicl€ of a D.dh (Anbiguously)
Nasa. house on squar€ 19 37 Forctold. Cab el Garcia Mdque. and the Poven of Fic on, eds. l. Ot-
Na$r housc n€ar river 5t
I5 43 lega and C. Eliol, 74-85. Austin: University of Tcxas Press.
N hou!. on squaE and ne.r 34
riv.r 6 34 l7 Esroch E 1994. The Reader's E e: vi!@l lmairg u Readet Respo6e. Balti-
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Church onsquare t9 20 Ferguson, E., and M. Hega.ty. 1994. P.openics of Cognitivc Maps Conslructed
MilI shop on squar€ 95
Milk shop nert ro church
,, l7 64 ftom Texrs. ldenory aCognitiot 22.4t 455-73.
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Books.
t2 2S
Ceni8, R. 1993. Erpetien.iry Nanative W/otl^: On the PsycholoAical Activi-
Church opposne Nasar house
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Brothel away fton square
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Kosslrn, S. 1980. Inage ond M,rd Carnbridge: Harvard University Prcss.
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16.
I Introductiotr
Towo sa 'Noturut' Nsrratologt (Fludernik 1996) formulated a
narratological patadigm based on conversational narrative ('natural
narrative' in the Labovian terminology) and predicated on cognitivist
riarameiers. Since 1996 several reviews and other discussions of the theory
irave aopeared.'The main criticisms levelled againsr the lheory have
focussJ on wo arcas of inleresl. For one, reviewers were concemed aboul
the universality of the cognitivist setup proposed, querying whether the
cognitive paramete$ outlined in fowatdr t 'Natwal' Nahatolog werc
really applicablc beyond a restricted period ofEnglish literature secondly'
reviewers focussed on the diachronic aspect of nanativizalioo, arguing-no
doubt corr€ctly-that thc book Provided too linle discussion and illusFation
oflhe interplay of univcrsal cognitive schemata and lhe d€vclopment of new
forms of (literary) fiction. The two issues are r€lated since diachronic con_
sidemtions impinge on ttoth concems. Tbus, some of the disaffecrion with
the universality of cognitive panmeters stems fiofi the suspicion that
readels' real-world schemata may have changed over tirne.

rS€e
Alber (2002), Cibson (199?), Lieske (1998), Minami(1998), Ron.n (199?). surkamp
(1998).witt(1998),Z..ck(2000).Ihavemvselrwritl..!numberofpap'srharhale
;xrend€d ny previous propG.l!, .sp€cially Flud€mik (2000, 200!, 2003) l Bould like ro us
tnB obmddiv !o thdi Libdh Bmuwe' dd Fk Jonscn*I, who or$nizcd a $orkhop on mv
wolt i; Crcni;ee. (Ndhdl ds) in lunc 2000. ltr hlvi ns pror id.d invaluablc f.€dbdcl *h'ch
l€d to ny cu'mt r€.pp€tual of lryedr a Natual Notatolog.

!!p,'rn. -v-., !ri- Jn!n.{wJ:

!41