Abstract: The “Spatial Turn” in humanities and social sciences has given rise to “spatial literary studies” in the field of literature. Robert T. Tally Jr., an American scholar, has been playing a leading role in promoting spatial literary studies in the United States and around the world. Over the course of about 20 years’ work in this area, Tally has built up a theoretical system consisting of such concepts as topophrenia, literary cartography, literary geography, geocriticism, and cartography, which correspond to the framework of “being-writing-text-criticism-theorizing”. He has also carried out a profound theoretical exploration with much originality about literary mapping, spatial concepts, utopia, and so on. In addition, he has produced a wide range of criticism on the works of Herman Melville, Edgar Allan Poe, and J. R. R. Tolkien. These studies not only show  the possible geocritical approaches to texts, but also reveal the applicability and explanatory power of spatial theories in critical practice, as well as demonstrate the innovation and prospect of spatial literary studies. More importantly, his research is largely influenced by Fredric Jameson and other Marxist theorists, and is deeply rooted in the tradition of Marxist literary criticism. He has not only inherited the theoretical achievements of his predecessors, but also developed and extended their theories and methods into new areas of critical practice.

Key words:

Robert T. Tally Jr., spatial literary studies; literary cartography, geocriticism, Marxism