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lawrenceevalyn's review
5.0
Rather slight, and I wish he explained his figures more, but clearly going to the foundation of my own research going forward; some invaluable observations.
baticeer's review
2.0
An interesting perspective on studies of literary history conveyed with an impenetrably pretentious style. Annoying to read.
rosseroo's review
3.0
I came to this book with zero background in literature studies, just as a "lay" reader who enjoys fiction from around the world. I've always been interested in the idea of geographically mapping works of fiction, and so this caught my eye. I gather that Moretti is a bigwig in comp lit academia, and this book struck me as an initial attempt to lay out three potential approaches for further development and expansion.
The word "abstract" in this slim book's subtitle is the key one -- as for someone not immersed in the professional study of literature, this is pretty dense and technical writing. In broad strokes though, he's proposing the use of large data sets to explore the development of various forms and content in fiction, as well as exploring how geography can be a lens to analyze texts, and how evolutionary theory could be used as a tool. The ideas expressed in this book seemed so preliminary as to be not entirely worth it if this isn't your field of study, and I believe in the intervening years, he's gone on to develop all three in greater detail and depth.
I'm assuming that some of this is all hugely controversial and heretical in some circles, but as an outsider, it just struck me as some interesting new approaches that would be additive to the field, not a replacement for existing methods of literary analysis. Ultimately, this is for specialist audiences.
The word "abstract" in this slim book's subtitle is the key one -- as for someone not immersed in the professional study of literature, this is pretty dense and technical writing. In broad strokes though, he's proposing the use of large data sets to explore the development of various forms and content in fiction, as well as exploring how geography can be a lens to analyze texts, and how evolutionary theory could be used as a tool. The ideas expressed in this book seemed so preliminary as to be not entirely worth it if this isn't your field of study, and I believe in the intervening years, he's gone on to develop all three in greater detail and depth.
I'm assuming that some of this is all hugely controversial and heretical in some circles, but as an outsider, it just struck me as some interesting new approaches that would be additive to the field, not a replacement for existing methods of literary analysis. Ultimately, this is for specialist audiences.
johnreader's review
5.0
This main premise of this book is based on "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions"--which is sort of the structure behind the structures. Though I was wowed by the introduction, I thought, and in hindsight, wisely so, that I ought to first read the Khune book to get a better idea of what "Maps..." was talking talking about. Basically, Moretti introduces the idea of structures behind the structures, using quantitative means to offer up different perspectives within literature as a means to help dredge up things we would otherwise miss. For instance, in the Maps section he lays out the placements of where stories happen within this small village, revealing a pattern of ever expanding circles around a central point. He then follows later books by the same author showing how this shape evolved into a web-like pattern, which helped him see a pattern common to all "village" stories and how that genre evolved as the shape of the village life became more localized. It sounds boring, I know, but his writing style was easy to follow and his examples were amazing. I'll have to sit with the ideas in this book for a long while, I think, in order to digest the magnitude of Moretti's ideas. I'm always nervous about being "scientific" with art, but really, Moretti only helps show that artists and scientists really do follow similar impulses.
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