“Nominativi fritti e mappamondi” is a quote from Domenico di Giovanni, called “il Burchiello”, a XV century Italian poet. After an attempt to analyse its possible significances, the author of this article states that journeys, in mapped or unmapped lands, are always a discovery of the self as they lead to a deeper recognition of one’s self, through the confrontation with the Other. Each physical journey has an imaginary element, and nonsense, madness, dream and fantasy are imaginary journeys, which mark a transformation or progress in the individual’s perception of reality. Extracts from several literary works from Victorian times are used in order to illustrate the centrality of precisely these topics. Furthermore we learn that the search for identity and the need to redesign the maps drawn by Europeans, are at the centre of the writing of the most important postcolonial authors. We see, however, that they try and find different paths to overcome the stupefaction and anguish provoked by the absence or unreliability of reference points.
