Factitive Maps: Manipulating Spaces and Characters in Vast Narratives

Abstract

Westworld is a series deeply based on practices of world-building, where a secondary world is embedded inside the fictional, primary world, activating multiple narrative levels (Genette in Narrative Discourse: An Essay in Method. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, [1972] 1980). In this metanarrative space construction, maps play a seminal role in the definition of both the fictional landscape and the characters who move within it. More specifically, cartographic representations are used inside the plot as “internal maps” (Ryan 2003b) and they can assume multiple functions: representational, informational, orienting- interpretative or interactive function. This chapter notably analyses their factitive function to ultimately discuss the peculiar (meta-)narrative architecture of this series. A focus on how maps can manoeuvre both landscape and characters will be given in order to demonstrate their gameplay dimension (Aarseth 2003), as they actively blur the boundaries between secondary worlds inside the same narrative space.