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The use of the word "map" is somewhat non-technical, thus why the use of this word? Many people are not really that familiar with maps. Some people say that maps are a two-dimensional representation. Such people have forgotten that "globes" are also subsumed under cartography and are not two-dimensional representations. In addition, a "map" may not be terrestrial, thus for example, Galileo Galilei's "map" of the moon, or Danté's description of "Hell" with its concentric rivers demarcating ever deeper depths of Hell. Indeed, cartography also includes chorography. A chorograph usually is a map limited to a city or a region smaller than an entire nation or country. Chorographs tend to be three-quarter views or views from some other angle rather than a flat representation. Chorographs also tend to show detail in a way to emphasize importance, status or function. For example, representing a city, a chorograph would likely show the buildings of the wealthy as tall and ornate, decreasing in height and detail until the buildings of the poor are depicted as small and simple. Churches would also be shown as tall and ornate, as would governmental buildings and military institutions. Thus, a chorographic representation typically illustrates class strata and sources of power and differentiates this from other aspects of the population. One can easily see that a chorographic representation is quite different from the usual ideas of maps studied in cartography.
Maps and chorographs both have another similarity: a common function. Maps and chorographs tend to also make use of aspects of "propaganda" (or "rhetoric", in the sense of Aristotle). Thus a "cartouche" is typicaly found on English maps of the Victorian period (Colonialism). Have you ever wondered how these cartouches got on these maps? Were these cartouches just lying around and they just happened to crawl onto the maps? On English maps, a cartouche typically represented England or Europe as "ruling" the world. Ruling who? How about ruling India, Asia, or Africa? These cartouches are propaganda, nothing else. However, chorographs, by representing the homes of the wealthy of a particular religion as being bigger and more ornate, are also propaganda. Thus it should come as no surprise that the Maximilian I sponsored a college of rhetoric, poetry and mathematics at Vienna which produced many sixteenth-century Humanist cartographers. Poetry? Consider non-lyrical poetry such as "Os Lusiades" by Camões", an epic poem about the founding of the Portuguese empire! 1
What does cartography and chorography have to do with Dickens? Dickens in his novels and articles found in such journals as Household Words provides detailed descriptions of London and the towns around London. 2 Does Dickens enter into aspects of rhetoric? For example, does Dickens do something a bit out of the ordinary? It has been said that prior to the Victorian period, it was more typical to write about the aristrocracy. However, Dickens often describes criminals, the impoverished, those afflicted with illnesses, brutalized women and children, smug religious prigs, distant political officials, etc. Thus the writing of Dickens appeals to a different audience than what was normally expected. This audience was a large audience (the size of the audience is important in rhetoric). The audience suffering the political turbulence of the times. In a sense, Dickens' literature was more like a chorographic literature, whereas most other examples of literature were like a cartographic literature: Dickens wrote about "class" structure. By appealing to a larger audience (the poor, who were becoming literate as a requirement of industrialization), the works of Dickens became influential as they touched the emotions and lives of this audience.
It is possible to use maps to validate Dickens' knowledge of London streets and countryside. In some cases, maps provide an identification of the kind of shops (milliner, pawnbroker, tobacco, books, etc.) The following maps may be referenced:
Literature in other countries, such as Russia during the nineteenth century, began to describe distinctions between not just the fronts and backs of buildings, but the floors as well, creating a new classification of cartography. "Here is a large Parisian apartment building on a crowded block, filled with people from its foundation to its very roof. [In it are] the extreme luxury on the first floor, the extreme poverty under the roof, and the enterprise and activity of its middle." (See J. Janin, "La Confession", Paris, M. Levy, 1861, pp. 217-219, found in Nikolai Nekrasov (Ed.), "Petersburg: The Physiology of a City", Northwestern University Press, 2009.)
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