A major breakthrough in inclusive toponymy: Paul Carter’ new book “Naming No Man’s Land. Potscolonial Toponymies”
Carter, P. (2024). Naming No Man’s Land: Postcolonial Toponymies, Palgrave MacMillan. DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60688-5
Paul Carter extends his thinking on the meaning of place names in the former settlement colonies, this time from the point of view of the rehabilitation of indigenous toponymy. He develops a rich and original reflection that challenges and complements the current renewal of toponymy through the so-called “critical place naming studies”.
His radical proposal is based on several statements that have been elaborated and tested in the context of Australian place renaming initiatives. Firstly, to avoid equalising the toponymies at stake (because they belong to incommensurable ontologies) but to allow for parallel apprehension, by introducing the status of “migrants” in the legitimisation of different former stakeholders (including settlers) and related (relational) memories. Secondly, to approach the question of place naming or renaming in a relational manner, accepting the principle of plural place names, which could be described as complementary and alternative, or even mobile. Lastly (but there are even more stimulating avenues opened up by Carter), to take seriously the affective dimensions that make toponymy a poetic creation. For Carter, this does not contradict the eminently political dimension of place naming in relation to the affirmation of complex, lived territorialities.
This fascinating work is likely to revolutionise inclusive approaches to critical toponymy by proposing that they move away from the modern fixist paradigm (the one that assigns an individual name to a single cartographic object) and move towards the semiotic creative path of a toponymic situationism that gives meaning to plural and relational territorial practices.
Frédéric Giraut
OpenEdition vous propose de citer ce billet de la manière suivante :
neotopo (22 novembre 2024). A major breakthrough in inclusive toponymy: Paul Carter’ new book “Naming No Man’s Land. Potscolonial Toponymies”. NEOTOPONYMIE/NEOTOPONYMY. Consulté le 14 mars 2026 à l’adresse https://doi.org/10.58079/12qqc

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