Maps from Cosgrove's Introduction

Jane's picture is the best illustration I've seen of the paradoxical perspective of the romantic poet/narrator (romantic irony?), who attempts to subsume nature until he realizes that he is subsumed by it, the same path as our gaze. This reminds me of two maps in Cosgrove's introduction, which I downloaded from the Internet, that show how ideology dramatically influences our view of the environment. The top sketch represents the world as it was visualized by the English during Medieval times, and the bottom one depicts the nineteenth century English visage. Notice that the mapa mundi is centered on the holy city of Jerusalem and shows Europe, Asia, and Africa as world islands enclosed by a ring of ocean. Note also hierarchical layout of heaven and the underworld. The map of the British imperial world, on the other hand, shows England in the center, flanked by its colonial possessions.

                                        Click on the map to enlarge it.

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