Uporczywe kartografie i mapy z Doliny Muminków
A Wrongheaded Approach to Cartography in Humanities and Maps from Moominvalley

Summary/Abstract: The article addresses the difficulties of crossing the boundaries between geography and cartography on one side, and cultural studies as well as literary studies on the other side. The author relies on the argument that it is not possible to impose cartographic grid on imaginary spaces. Such illusion is the effect of the trans-formation of humane terminology into the set of metaphors. The concepts humanists use only bring them closer rather than adhere to phenomena. However, this has also a useful effect, i.e. abstracting key points in relations between structures of literary works and spatial structures by researchers. A great example of using maps as a culturally specific visual strategy are the works of Tove Jansson. Moomin stories’ author made maps with awareness of the metaphorical nature of such a procedure, and of the historicity of the graphic conventions in the notating of space information. Moominvalley had undoubtedly some escapist hallmarks, but it was subordi-nated to the post-war geographical and geopolitical order, the new map of Europe and Finland after Yalta Con-ference. Characterizing maps from Moomin books leads the author to conclude that Jansson has debunked a naïve approach to mapping, namely, a cultural attitude according to which maps establish truths about the shape of the world and create visual homologies of territories. In some way, Tove Jansson anticipated misusing of idea of maps, both in humanities and in everyday discourses.

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