Users should be aware that the maps on Mapping Decadence are limited chronologically. They do not, therefore, include the birthplace of authors born outside of Paris. Instead, the map’s first entry denotes each author’s initial residence at the beginning of her or his career in Paris. The last entry for Lorrain, Schwob, and Huysmans, meanwhile, corresponds with their death. Rachilde, who died in 1953, long after the period on which the project focuses, makes her final appearance on the map in 1905.
To enhance the clarity of the master map – which shows the locations of all four writers and their publishers – I assigned green pins for Lorrain, purple ones for Rachilde, blue ones for Schwob, and orange ones for Huysmans. The circle markers, by contrast, are reserved for the authors’ publishers.
In addition to the master map, I created individual maps for each author, to better illustrate each writer’s relationships with her or his publisher. On these individual maps, I assigned chronological numbered pins to the writers. These pins indicate the sequence of residences at which each writer lived in Paris throughout her or his career. As for the publishers, I assigned them each a different colored circle. I also decided to include square markers on Schwob and Lorrain’s maps to indicate the location of the headquarters of the newspapers at which they were working. On Huysmans’s map, a green square represents his workplace.
Moreover, when users click the authors’ pins on any of the maps featured on this website, a pop-up display will appear containing the name of the author in question, the address of the selected location, the years the author was in residence, and the major works she or he published while in residence. When one clicks on the publishers’ circles, a similar display appears containing the name of the publisher (or publishing house), his or their address, and major works he or they published by any of the four Decadent authors in question. Please note, however, that on the authors’ individual maps, the displays associated with the publishers’ pins indicate only those books published by the subject of the map.
Finally, I added a detailed legend to each map so that users can follow on the map where each author was living when she or he was working with a specific publisher during her or his career. The legend showcases which publisher a given author worked with and for how long (measured in number of publications as well as years).
The access the larger view of these individual maps click on the link on the last slide of each author’s Story Map.
Tools Used: StoryMaps and ArcGIS Online for the maps component as well as Gephi for the Network Graph.