Literary Tourism and the British Isles

History, Imagination, and the Politics of Place

Edited by LuAnn McCracken Fletcher - Contributions by Brian de Ruiter; Crystie R. Deuter; Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins; Dori Griffin; Erin Katherine Kelly; LuAnn McCracken Fletcher; Holly-Gale Millette; Lance M. Neckar; Seth T. Reno; Gareth Roddy; Sarah Whitney and Linda Young

Literary Tourism and the British Isles: History, Imagination, and the Politics of Place explores literary tourism’s role in shaping how locations in the British-Irish Isles have been seen, historicized, and valued. Within its chapters, contributors approach these topics from vantage points such as feminism, cultural studies, geographic and mobilities paradigms, rural studies, ecosystems, philosophy of history, dark tourism, and marketing analyses. They examine guidebooks and travelogues; oral history, pseudo-history, and absent history; and literature that spans Renaissance drama to contemporary popular writers such as Dan Brown, Diana Gabaldon, and J.K. Rowling. Places discussed in the collection include “the West;” Wordsworth Country and Brontë Country; Stowe and Scotland; the Globe Theatre and its environs; Limehouse, Rosslyn Chapel, and the imaginary locations of the Harry Potter series. Taken as a whole, this collection illuminates some of the ways by which “the British Isles” have been created by literary and historical narratives, and, in turn, will continue to be seen as places of cultural importance by visitors, guidebooks, and site sponsors alike.

Lexington Books

Pages: 348 • Trim: 6½ x 9⅛

978-1-4985-8123-3 • Hardback • December 2018 • $142.00 • (£109.00)

978-1-4985-8124-0 • eBook • December 2018 • $134.50 • (£104.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Literary Criticism / Modern / General, Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Historical Events

Literary Tourism and the British Isles

History, Imagination, and the Politics of Place

Hardback

Summary

Literary Tourism and the British Isles: History, Imagination, and the Politics of Place explores literary tourism’s role in shaping how locations in the British-Irish Isles have been seen, historicized, and valued. Within its chapters, contributors approach these topics from vantage points such as feminism, cultural studies, geographic and mobilities paradigms, rural studies, ecosystems, philosophy of history, dark tourism, and marketing analyses. They examine guidebooks and travelogues; oral history, pseudo-history, and absent history; and literature that spans Renaissance drama to contemporary popular writers such as Dan Brown, Diana Gabaldon, and J.K. Rowling. Places discussed in the collection include “the West;” Wordsworth Country and Brontë Country; Stowe and Scotland; the Globe Theatre and its environs; Limehouse, Rosslyn Chapel, and the imaginary locations of the Harry Potter series. Taken as a whole, this collection illuminates some of the ways by which “the British Isles” have been created by literary and historical narratives, and, in turn, will continue to be seen as places of cultural importance by visitors, guidebooks, and site sponsors alike.

Details

Lexington Books

Pages: 348 • Trim: 6½ x 9⅛

978-1-4985-8123-3 • Hardback • December 2018 • $142.00 • (£109.00)

978-1-4985-8124-0 • eBook • December 2018 • $134.50 • (£104.00)

Subjects: Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Literary Criticism / Modern / General, Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Historical Events

Author

LuAnn McCracken Fletcher is professor of English at Cedar Crest College.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction: Imagining the British Isles for Travelers: The Place of Literature and History

LuAnn McCracken Fletcher

Part One: Literature and Landscape

Chapter One: Pictorializing the British Isles for Young Americans

Dori Griffin

Chapter Two: Mist in “the West”: Literatures of Travel and Landscape in the Western British-Irish Isles, c. 1880-1940

Gareth Roddy

Chapter Three: Shakespearean Bankside Walk: An Ecosystem of Literary Memorials

Erin Katherine Kelly

Chapter Four: Eco-Literary Tourism in Wordsworth Country

Seth T. Reno and Crystie R. Deuter

Chapter Five: Wild, Bleak Moors: Literary Landscaping and the Re-Ruralisation of “Brontë Country”

Bryonny Goodwin-Hawkins

Part Two: “Real” History

Chapter Six: Stowe Actually

Lance M. Neckar and Sarah Whitney

Chapter Seven: Writers’ House Museums: English Literature in the Heart and on the Ground

Linda Young

Chapter Eight: “Scott-land” and Outlander: Inventing Scotland for Armchair Tourists

LuAnn McCracken Fletcher

Part Three: “Place” and Popular Culture

Chapter Nine: Limehouse: The Opiate of the Masses

Holly-Gale Millette

Chapter Ten: Coping with the Code: Exploring the Effects of The Da Vinci Code on Rosslyn Chapel

Brian de Ruiter

Epilogue: A Portkey to Potter: Literary Tourism and the Place of Imagination

LuAnn McCracken Fletcher

Index

About the Editor

About the Contributors

Reviews

In an admirably wide-ranging journey through literary tourism in the British Isles—from the Renaissance to the present—the contributors to this book provide fascinating, important, and rich analyses of the construction of literary and historical narratives and imaginaries about places and spaces in Britain and Ireland.
— Paul Ward, Edge Hill University

[The essays] all deliver on the promise of the book of describing the connection between literature and tourism. There is an obvious interconnection between the two, so it is beneficial that these scholars are addressing the various relationships that form between the two. Literature can prompt tourists to start visiting new places, and a new interest in specific places can inspire literature. Since literary tourism is particularly popular in our interconnected world, a book like this is needed to explore what this mixture means for our history, culture and literature.
— Pennsylvania Literary Journal

A fresh and richly diverse set of meditations upon the ways the locations and landscapes of the British Isles have been imagined for and by literary tourists. Essential reading on, in particular, the rhetoric of enchantment from the nineteenth century to the present.
— Nicola Watson, The Open University

In essays investigating many attractions, this interdisciplinary collection advances studies of literary tourism by adding dimensions to the map of cultural commemoration in the British-Irish Isles.
— Alison Booth, University of Virginia