DECONSTRUCTING THE MAP

Abstract

The paper draws on ideas in postmodern thinking to redefine the nature of maps as representations of power. The traditional rules of cartography – long rooted in a scientific epistemology of the map as an objective form of knowledge – will first be reviewed as an object of deconstruction. Second, a deconstructionist argument will explore the textuality of maps, including their metaphorical and rhetorical nature. Third, the paper will examine the dimensions both of external power and of the omnipresence of internal power in the cartographic representation of place.