«And so I Unfold the Maps of My Life»: Bio-Mappings, Self-Writing and Cartographic Memoirs

This review briefly explores aspects of the complex relationship between cartography and autobiography. Drawing from Walter Benjamin’s well-known image of an «auto-bio-graphy» projected onto a map of Berlin, this paper focuses on recent life-mapping experiences mediated by digital tools and practices. While addressing the relationships between life writing and maps, the article reviews some case studies within literature and interventions within literary criticism, then it considers reflections about cartography and biography that have emerged among geographers and cultural map scholars. In particular, an emphasis is placed on the role of the cartographic object as a trigger for personal memories and on the narrative rendering of the subjective relational experiences of maps. Finally, the article considers the cartographic memoir genre as a form of life writing.