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Courtney Henry Dr. Sherrin Frances English 212 Visual Approaches to Composition February 10, 2014 What does a map really mean? What is a map really? The have the typical definition which is a diagrammatic representation of an area of land or sea showing physical features, cities, roads, etc (Map). To a lot of people thats it, there is nothing else to think about when they hear the word map. All a map does is show you where things are people dont actually think about how a map affects them and makes them feel. J. B. Harley and Reynolds take the idea of a map and its meaning a step further. They both have ideas of what a map means, but where Harley focuses on the political meaning Reynolds looks at first space and third space in her book Geographies of Writing: Inhabiting Places and Encountering Difference. Harley and Reynolds both talk about the meaning of maps. When looking at the meaning of a map it helps people think more critically and understand what maps really mean. In Maps, Knowledge, and Power by J. B. Harley he states: Both in the selectivity of their content and in their signs and styles of representation maps are a way of conceiving, articulating, and structuring the human world which is biased towards promoted by, and exerts influence upon particular sets of social relations. By accepting such premises it becomes easier to see how appropriate they are to manipulation by the powerful in society. (Harley, 278) This pretty just means that when looking at maps over time they have manipulated the masses and that they are a way of structuring the world to believe certain things. Harley looks at maps

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as a way for people to show how powerful they are. In Maps, Knowledge, and Power Harley says maps just as much as examples of literature or the spoken word- exert a social influence through their omissions as much as by the features they depict and emphasis (Harley, 290). In this sentence he is talking about how maps can be read like a book; they have as much influence on us a fact or a law. He talks about this again when he says The geometrical structure of maps.is an element which can magnify the political impact of an image even where no conscious distortion is intended (Harley, 289-90). Harley makes it very clear in this article that what a map looks like is just as important as the hidden message that they give us when we read into them a little bit more. The physical map is just as important as the mental map to Reynolds as it is to Harley. Reynolds starts chapter three of her book by talking about a clip from west wing where they flip the map upside down. This simple act makes people really start to think about how the view maps. People use maps every day but the kind of maps they use are all from memory, Reynolds states that here: .walkers and residents also depend on different types of maps, memories, or landmarks to find their way around, even for such mundane activities as errands or appointments: street names, subway maps, big trees, crosswalks, hills or rivers, bus stops, shops or stores, signs of all types (Reynolds,81) Mental mapping is used all the time it is how people picture their neighborhood, school, or how to get any place at all. Reynolds talks a lot about mental maps and physical maps she even defines them as, ..a persons cognitive capacity to understand where things are in relationship to another, sense of direction, or sense of distance (Reynolds, 82). A mental map is based on what people see or what they are told, when someone is told over and over somewhere is

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dangerous that is how is mapped in their mind as a bad place you do not want to go. Mental maps and the physical maps are very different. Mental maps are made from our own experiences they have feelings involved in them where the physical maps are just what people see. The map of Michigan can be thought of in many ways, the two ways I am going to discuss are the physical map and mental map. The physical map according to Edward Soja could be considered as first space. First Space is just the map itself there is not emotion to it; it just shows different places and the boundaries of Michigan. The map on the right is an example of a first space (physical) map. People that live in Michigan can relate to this, they know the cities and where they live. People that do not live in Michigan look at it and more than likely see Flint and think DO NOT GO THERE. People who live really close to Flint know the places that are safe and the no-go areas of Flint. This map really has no meaning to when people look at it though, other than the fact that this is the state they live in and know the cities that are located in it. When someone looks at the map on the next page they might find it funny but true, they can relate to it, and feel emotion when looking at it. To Soja this map would be considered third space, meaning how the people living there give meaning to something. This map is based off of ethos, pathos, and logos. For this map the audience in people that live in Michigan and it creates a form of emotion, either good or bad. For some they might think this is a funny map but other people that live in Michigan might take offence to it. It is really all on how they look at it and thier mental map of Michigan. Reynolds does an experiment with eight third year students; they

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classify their city using, desirable, ethnic, and no-go areas. This map has areas like this, such as the section named gangsters and want to be gangster, many people will consider this a no-go unless they live there and then it is desirable. The no-go, desirable, and ethnic areas of this map will change from person to person. Both Reynolds and Harley have interesting point for how people should look at maps. I agree with both of them, maps need to be seen differently. People need to look into the meaning of the map that they are looking at and realize that the map they grew up with may not necessarily be right. Every person has their own version of the same map or place. Personally I like the mental map of Michigan better because I already know what the physical map of Michigan looks like. So what is the definition of a map, and does that definition really have to be of the physical map? Personally I dont think the word map has a real definition that everyone will agree on.

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Work Cited Harley, J.B. Maps, Knowledge, and Power. The Iconography of Landscape. Ed Cosgrove, Denis. Daniels, Stephen. Cambridge University Press, New York: 1988. 277312. Print Map Oxford Dictionaries Electronic Dictionary. 2014. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/map#map (Feb. 09 2014) Reynolds, Nedra. Geographies of Writing: Inhabiting Places and Encountering Difference. . Southern Illinois University Press: 2007. 78-109. Print.
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