A 17-Year-Old Artist Created This Incredible Map Of Literature

Martin Vargic is a 17-year-old artist from Slovakia who specialises in creating intricate maps drawn from modern data and pop culture.


The Map of Literature is featured in his new book, Vargic’s Miscellany of Curious Maps: Mapping out the Modern World.

Vargic told BuzzFeed: “The Map of Literature is a graphical visualization of how the world’s literature evolved from the ancient era to the present day.”

“Different periods and genres of literature are represented by distinct entities (‘countries’) on the map, that unfold from the centre and show the gradual evolution of the various genres.”

“The map is divided into four distinct continents that symbolize the different literary forms: drama, poetry, prose fiction, and prose nonfiction.”

“Many more minor literary genres, such as romance, horror or young adult literature are also located on separate landmasses.”

“It took me about three weeks to design and draw the Map of Literature, however I often worked more than 15 hours a day on it.”

“My favourite continent on the map is prose fiction, as it is the most intricate and complex one, and also contains a lot of my favourite books and literary genres (sci-fi and fantasy).”

“I don’t think I have one single favourite book or author, however I particularly enjoyed reading the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, Terry Pratchett, George R.R. Martin, Jules Verne, and Douglas Adams.”

“The Lord of the Rings and the Song of Ice and Fire series are my all-time favourite books.”

Vargic’s Miscellany of Curious Maps: Mapping out the Modern World By Martin Vargic is available from Penguin on 24 September 2015.

For more of Vargic’s work, you can visit his website here.