Syuzhet

Syuzhet Map

The central site of the map (and book) is unequivocal for this visualisation: the campsite on Wildcat Island dominates and provides the centre for independent play for the children.  Naming and owning different local sites around the camp itself, but still on the island, creates a diamond-like core of possessive imagination in the centre of the map.  On the left of this shape the landing place of the harbour on the island forms a hub of activity as we would expect.

Around this island core, three other key sites unfold. One of these, on the left of the map, provides the link to the children’s playmates and so remains enfolded within imaginary geography: situated up the 'River Amazon'. The two others represent important links to the realist landscape of the represented Lake District. To the left and centre are sites on the mainland, as well as Dixon’s Farm from which they get regular supplies. At the bottom we see locations in and around Holly Howe where their mother and younger sister are staying.  This marginal site actually anchors and secures everything else – allowing the children to play independently, yet securely, nearby. Treating the Lake as a separate entity (although of course the island is on the lake) was a deliberate choice by the coder, but as the Swallows & Amazons series is famously accompanied by a detailed endpaper map of the imaginary region, with the lake at its centre, this is appropriate.  The reader is provided the means to trace out routes and particular areas as part of their textual experience.

The tools used to make these visualisations are available on Github at
https://github.com/chronotopic-cartographies/visualisation-generators.