A Reading of Maps in Zeyn Joukhadar’s The Map of Salt and Stars

Zeyn Joukhadar’s The Map of Salt and Stars explores the interdependence between maps and map makers/map users from the perspective of a child narrator, as it narrates both a young Syrian American protagonist, Nour’s migration from the Syrian city of Homs to the West and an imaginary heroine of a tale, Rawiya’s journey of adventures through the same geographical areas eight hundred years apart. While Nour decodes her Mama’s map to find a safe and sound place she can call home, Rawiya seeks out a renowned map maker, al-Idrisi, to become his apprentice and learn the art of map making. As the title of the novel indicates, maps serve as both the central subject and the theme, and function as references or visual representations within the narrative. There are four different maps, namely al-Idrisi’s accurate world map, Nour’s Mama’s coloured map, the fictional map within the covers of the book, and the visual poems addressed to the travelled countries. These maps are essential in analyzing the nourishing relationship between visual representation and verbal description of maps as well as reading them as texts. Therefore, this study aims to show how maps and narratives are closely interwoven through the lens of cartographic ekphrasis and to reveal the textuality of maps by examining the power relations within the framework of critical cartography in Joukhadar’s The Map of Salt and Stars.