Topoi Map

Barchester Towers is a complex text to map because of its narrative structure – switching between framing sites of the sophisticated ‘real’ world (London, Italy), the nested sites of Barsetshire ('Plumstead', 'Barchester') and the metanarratological spaces of narrative reflection and explanation by a self-conscious narrator. As a result, the novel’s spatiality could be said to embody three distinct scales. The nested fictional world occupies the main body of the topoi map, directly and indirectly interconnected. The other places, which constitute the reflexive and larger world, loop and jut out, connected to the hub via orange jumps and green narratological edges.

Places outside 'Barchester' – 'Italy', 'London' and 'Oxford' – are past places and feature in the narrative at a temporal remove, as seen in the connections (jumps and interrupts) rather than the more direct spatial connections between sites in Barsetshire. This demonstrates the sense of a contained world distanced from the outer or ‘real’ world that encloses it, and heightens the sense of contrast between the two spaces. But, conversely, the influence of the nesting world (London – ‘public press’ and London politics – ‘Downing Street’) is also strongly felt.