On mapping and its afterlife: unfolding landscapes in northwestern North America

This paper contributes to recent postcolonial debates about the cartography of European expansion and its implications for constructing North American landscapes. It does so by moving beyond a pure deconstructionist critique of mapping by drawing on range of theoretical literature that encourages a view of cartography as being inextricably tied to the social relations of production and consumption. In particular, it emphasizes the point that maps have social lives not necessarily different in kind from other forms of material culture. Drawing on the cartographic creation of the northwest, the argument develops through examining the social and material dimensions of map making and its afterlife. The paper suggests, therefore, that the 'power of maps' had varying and often contradictory outcomes. Keywords: Postcolonialismnorthwestern North Americacartographyconstructions of landscapeproductionconsumption Acknowledgements I would like to thank Ana Jorge and Gordon Noble for thoughtful comments on earlier versions of the text. It was Gordon who pointed out the interesting connection between the social life of maps and the concept of literary afterlives. Peter van Dommelen and two anonymous peer reviewers provided helpful suggestions on the penultimate draft.