Affective Geographies of Displacement: Emotion as Cognitive Map in Tash Aw’s Map of the Invisible World

In the study of literature, scholars often look at how stories help us understand history, identity, and the places we call home. A specific area of this work focuses on "postcolonial" literature, which examines the complex lives of people in nations that were once ruled by foreign empires. In these stories, characters frequently find themselves displaced, separated from their families or their countries, and forced to navigate a world where the official maps and history books no longer make sense. To understand how these characters survive such confusion, researchers have begun to look at "affect," a term that describes the raw, physical feelings of anxiety, guilt, or longing that exist before we even name them as specific emotions. When combined with the idea of "cognitive mapping"—the mental process we all use to figure out where we are in relation to the world around us—these feelings become more than just personal moods. They become tools for navigation.

This approach suggests that when a person is lost, their feelings do not just happen to them; they actively help them find their way. A sense of dread might warn someone of danger, while a feeling of nostalgia might point toward a place of safety, even if that place no longer exists in reality. By treating emotions as a kind of internal compass, we can see how people in difficult political times create their own understanding of the world, one that might differ from the official story told by the government. This way of thinking allows us to see that feeling is a form of knowing, a way of gathering information about a world that is too chaotic to be understood through facts alone.

In a new paper, scholar Xiaojia Tan applies this way of thinking to Tash Aw's novel, Map of the Invisible World. The book is set in Indonesia during the 1960s, a time of intense political turmoil just before the country's leadership changed hands. The story follows two orphaned brothers, Adam and Johan, who are separated and raised by different families in different countries. One brother is taken in by a Dutch painter living in Indonesia, while the other is adopted by a wealthy Malaysian couple. As the political situation in Indonesia becomes dangerous, the characters are forced to move, hide, and search for one another in a landscape that feels increasingly hostile and confusing. While many critics have previously analyzed the book by looking at how the characters remember their pasts or how they try to build a sense of national identity, Tan argues that these scholars have missed a crucial element: the role of emotion as a map.

Tan proposes that the characters in the novel use their feelings to navigate the "invisible world" of postcolonial Indonesia. This invisible world is made up of social rules, political dangers, and hidden connections that are not written down on any official map. The author suggests that the characters' specific emotions—Adam's anxiety, Johan's guilt, the American scholar Margaret's alienation, and the painter Karl's nostalgia—act as "affective cognitive maps." This is a term that describes how feelings help us understand space and our place within it. Instead of just being sad or scared, these emotions function as instruments that allow the characters to sense danger, locate people, and interpret the shifting political landscape.

The paper breaks down how each character uses a different emotion to find their way. Adam, the younger brother, is driven by a constant state of anxiety. This fear is not a weakness that paralyzes him; rather, it acts like a compass. Because he is afraid of losing the people he loves, his anxiety keeps him alert to the dangers around him. It helps him decide when to hide and when to move, guiding him through the archipelago as he searches for his adoptive father. His fear is a form of knowledge that tells him where the threats are, allowing him to survive in a world where the ground seems to shift beneath his feet.

For the older brother, Johan, the guiding force is guilt. He has left his brother behind to live a life of privilege in Malaysia, and this guilt attaches itself to the places he has left behind. It is not just a feeling in his mind; it is a heavy weight that connects him to the specific locations of his past, such as the orphanage where he was abandoned. This guilt prevents him from forgetting his brother and the history that separates them. It creates a map of his own betrayal, showing him that his comfortable life in Malaysia is inextricably linked to the suffering he left behind in Indonesia. His emotion keeps the connection alive, even when he tries to ignore it.

The American scholar, Margaret, experiences a different kind of feeling: alienation. Because she is an outsider who does not fully belong to either the American expatriate community or the Indonesian society, she sees things that others miss. Her sense of not fitting in gives her a unique perspective. She can observe the hidden tensions and political shifts that insiders are too close to notice. Her alienation is not a failure to belong; it is a mode of perception that allows her to understand the invisible structures of power in the country. She knows the truth about the situation precisely because she is not part of the group that is trying to hide it.

Finally, the Dutch painter, Karl, is guided by nostalgia. He loves Indonesia so deeply that he wishes he were Indonesian, even though his white skin and Dutch heritage mark him as an outsider. His nostalgia is a longing for a world that is disappearing, a world where he could imagine himself as part of the local culture. This feeling maps a version of Indonesia that exists only in memory, one that official history has erased. His desire to belong to a place that rejects him reveals the limits of the nation-state's idea of unity. His emotion traces a path that cannot be walked, showing the impossibility of finding a true home within the rigid categories of a postcolonial nation.

By looking at these four characters, the paper argues that the novel is not just a story about political events, but a record of how people feel their way through history. The "invisible world" in the title is not just the political chaos of the 1960s, but the network of feelings that connects people to each other and to their past. The author suggests that these emotional maps are just as real as the physical maps drawn by governments. They show us the connections between people that politics tries to break, and they reveal the truths that official history tries to hide.

The study concludes that in Tash Aw's novel, feeling is a way of knowing. The characters do not just have emotions; they use them to make sense of a world that is otherwise unintelligible. Their anxiety, guilt, alienation, and nostalgia generate a new kind of knowledge about where they are and who they are. This knowledge challenges the official stories told by the state and creates a different kind of geography, one drawn in feelings rather than borders. The paper suggests that this approach offers a fresh way to understand postcolonial literature, showing that the most important maps we carry are not made of paper, but of the emotions that guide us through the unknown.