Question: Find and discuss the "geography" in some non-geographic and non-news article source.
Examples of types of work that you might select include fiction, non-fiction, a work of art, a song, an academic article or a selection from a non-geography textbook.
The "geography" that you are looking for should be some discussion in which space, place, spatial variation, distance, or any other geographic concept or theory is significant to whatever other action is happening in the selected work.
As you know from identifying the geography in news articles in assignments 1 and 2, there are many different ways that geography can appear in a work, explicitly or implicitly. The geography might manifest in the setting of the work, such as the place where the action of a novel takes place or the landscape that is the focus of a painting. You might find that the work makes some statement about a place and that this is the significant geography. Perhaps the location of the data collected in a research project is essential to the results of the research and that this is how the geography is relevant. Your goal should be to identify the geography and the significance of that geography to the overall work.
Be sure to address the following:
- Identify and describe the overall theme or purpose of the work that you selected. Discuss why you selected this work.
Identify and describe specifically the geography. What theory or concepts are evident in the work? What specifically does the geography contribute to the overall work?
- Consider how the piece would be different if that geography wasn't included. Would it be different? How? Would it be better or worse?
There is not necessarily a correct answer to this assignment. You will be graded on your ability to identify the geography in a non-geographic (and non-news) work and your ability to critically think about the role that geography plays in the overall development of that work.
Submit an essay that's approximately 500-700 words, keeping in mind that quality is more important than quantity. Be sure to identify the text that you are examining, include relevant passages or images from the source and cite (in any standard form) any sources you reference.