The English Lake District

Mapping the English Lake District: a literary GIS

This study demonstrates the potential of literary GIS to map qualitative spatial experiences, offering new methodological and critical approaches for analyzing textual accounts of place. By comparing Thomas Gray's proto-Picturesque journey through the English Lake District in 1769 with Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s post-Picturesque circumcursion in 1802, the research reveals how GIS can capture subjective spatial narratives beyond traditional quantitative data. The findings highlight the utility of literary GIS in spatial literary criticism, providing a framework to explore the critical possibilities and challenges of digitizing space and place in literature.