Objectives Narrative maps have become a heated topic of modern cartography. However, former studies have predominantly focused on map design, the media function of maps, as well as data organization and visualization techniques, with rare attention paid to the interpretive aspects of narrative maps, which are crucial for revealing the meaning of narrative maps. Interpretation provides a fundamental mode of making sense of texts, and any textual meaning is realized or generated in the process of interpretation. Before interpretation intervenes, a narrative map remains merely an object or artifact to be engaged, and the function of interpretation is to animate the “textual” property of the object, bringing it from a state of nature into a state of society, thereby explaining or recovering the significative and intentional content of the text and endowing it with meaning. Consequently, interpreting narrative maps entails unveiling their unintelligibility and rendering their meanings clear and visible. This study addresses this significant gap by proposing a dedicated theoretical and methodological framework for interpreting narrative maps, aiming to systematically uncover the layered meanings and discursive logic embedded in maps of varying themes, contents, and forms.

Methods Based on the complementary theory of modern hermeneutics, which reconciles methodological and ontological approaches, we introduce the principle of “integrity first” in Gestalt psychology, and propose the concept of “Gestalt of meaning”. This concept considers the meaning of narrative maps as a whole system composed of different levels of meaning sources (such as cartographer intent and textual inherent meaning) and meaning derivatives (primarily reader reception). We take this holistic system as the purpose of interpretation. This system exists in the dynamic process of continuous generation and dissemination, and there exists a contextual tension among the cartographer, the text, and the reader across different temporal and spatial frameworks. Then, building upon the well-established iconographic interpretation paradigm of the Warburg School, we innovatively introduce a communication perspective. This expanded view acknowledges that in the contemporary context of the “pictorial turn” and “deep mediatization”, the meaning of narrative maps is increasingly shaped by the logic of media and communication structures. We construct a four-dimensional interpretive framework for narrative maps encompassing: ontology, allegory, culture, and communication scene. Each dimension corresponds to a distinct analytical path: visual grammar analysis for ontological hermeneutics, visual discourse analysis for allegorical hermeneutics, visual cultural analysis for cultural hermeneutics, and communication scene analysis for the newly introduced perspective.

Results Taking the Wuhan Red Culture Map as a typical case, we demonstrate the comprehensive interpretation process of narrative maps using the proposed framework. This process reveals the effectiveness and analytical power of our framework for interpreting narrative maps. Specifically, ontological hermeneutics reveals the compositional structure and semantic principles of the formal dimension of narrative maps, analyzing narrative content, textual structure, and semantic rules. Allegorical hermeneutics investigates the implicit statutory meaning of narrative maps by examining signification systems, rhetorical structures, and contexts of occurrence. Cultural hermeneutics emphasizes the cultural concepts, historical contexts, and social structures behind the texts of narrative maps, incorporating cultural-historical, conceptual, and political analyses. Finally, the communication perspective broadens the interpretative scope of narrative maps by analyzing their production, dissemination through various media, and reception by diverse audiences, accounting for the negotiated nature of meaning in communicative practice.

Conclusions The proposed four-dimensional framework exhibits strong reliability and comprehensiveness in interpreting narrative maps, providing significant references for future research in both theory and methodology. The academic contributions of this study are twofold: (1) It proposes the “gestalt of meaning” concept for narrative maps, grounded in modern hermeneutics and Gestalt psychology, offering a coherent theoretical foundation for interpretation. (2) It constructs a practical methodological framework for interpretation, integrating and extending the Warburg tradition with communication theory, thus providing robust technical support for analytical practice. The proposed interpretive theory and methodological framework are not only applicable to narrative maps but also can offer valuable references for the interpretation of other types of maps and visual-textual artifacts. However, this study acknowledges certain limitations: It does not conduct a comparative analysis with other interpretive methods to evaluate relative strengths and weaknesses, and it awaits empirical quality assessment of the interpretive outcomes produced by the framework. To address these limitations, future research will employ methods such as questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and cognitive tests to evaluate the framework's interpretive efficacy, refine its dimensions, and further explore the dynamic interplay between map design, meaning construction, and audience perception within diverse cultural and communicative ecosystems.