We present Fabry-P\'erot (FP) imaging and longslit spectroscopy of the nearby
Seyfert II galaxy NGC 1068 using the Robert Stobie Spectrograph (RSS) on the
Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) to observe the impact of the central
Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) on the ionized gas in the galaxy on kiloparsec
scales. With SALT RSS FP we are able to observe the Hα+[N II] emission
line complex over a ∼2.6 arcmin2 field of view. Combined with the
longslit observation, we demonstrate the efficacy of FP spectroscopy for
studying nearby Type II Seyfert galaxies and investigate the kiloparsec-scale
ionized gas in NGC 1068. We confirm the results of previous work from the
TYPHOON/Progressive Integral Step Method (PrISM) survey that the
kiloparsec-scale ionized features in NGC 1068 are driven by AGN
photoionization. We analyze the spatial variation of the AGN intensity to put
forward an explanation for the shape and structure of the kiloparsec-scale
ionization features. Using a toy model, we suggest the ionization features may
be understood as a light-echo from a burst of enhanced AGN activity ∼2000
years in the past.Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astronomical
Journa