Journal 11 -- Critical Mapping

I was thinking about Lord of the Rings the other day. Books and films. I was thinking about Tolkien's constructed world coming alive through his words. This 'Middle Earth' is probably based on existing place, but it feels so real. I realized, as I was arguing about whether Mordor was a part of Middle Earth, that I had a vision of what this place looked like. I still think Mordor is part of Middle Earth. This discussion led me to think about maps as on object of Material Culture. Some maps are made to tell us where we are in relation to the world and other maps are constructed politically to define culture, language and space. Maps that delineate ways of life and try to tell someone who they are are of particular interest to my research. I would like to study how maps/cartographies are internalized and become part of an identity. Is the map merely a tool or a way to define and classify identity?

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