_________________________________________
Call for Papers:
Literature and
Tourisms of the
Long Nineteenth Century
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Guest Editor: Meghan Freeman, Manhattanville
College
According to the OED, the word
tourism enters the English lexicon at the dawn of the nineteenth century, thus
institutionalizing the notion that travel is a necessary component of personal
development. As crowds of earnest bourgeois travelers displaced the solitary young
aristocrat on the Grand Tour a vast body of literature concerned with both
mundane and exalted facets of foreign places cropped up to fulfill a new set of
needs. Owing to the diversity of places
to which individuals traveled and the many different reasons for doing so,
these needs were diverse and multiform.
So, rather than speak of a monolithic tourism culture, it might be
better to contemplate the many different tourisms that emerged from and
developed over the course of the long nineteenth century (defined here as
approximately 1789-1914). For this special issue of LIT we are soliciting essays concerning experiences of and with
tourism over the course of the long nineteenth century, as those experiences
are documented, codified, and complicated in literatures devoted to travel.
Travel literature, of course, had
long worked to kindle the imaginations of homebound readers with stories of
people and places elsewhere, but as technological and economic forces made
travel easier and more affordable, a new, heterogeneous population of tourists
called for, consumed, and produced texts that directed and validated their
experience of going abroad. And not only that: works of the eighteenth century
and Romantic period took on new meanings for readers as tourists sought forms
of authentic cultural experience that the tourism industry seemed to render
impossible. At the same time, new
imaginative works – novels, plays, and poems – reflected on tourism as a
distinct cultural practice and way of life, which demanded the performance of
specific behaviors in such spaces as museums and architectural ruins, spas and
sanitariums, theaters and opera houses, Alpine heights and tropical islands.
Alongside these critical and meditative literatures on the nature of tourism blossomed
specialist literatures designed for travelers with particular interests,
including sport and safari, natural wonders and naturalist study, health and
medicine, religious pilgrimage and worship, trade and imperial exploration, and
many other things besides. Finally, with the growth of these many tourisms came
as a well a vast promotional literature – print advertisements, pamphlets,
posters, and other ephemeral texts – that tried to convince travelers to pay a
visit. This special issue of LIT aims
to explore how these various literatures reflected the growth of and helped to
shape the diverse cultures of tourism in the long nineteenth century.
LIT: Literature
Interpretation Theory
publishes critical essays that employ engaging, coherent theoretical perspectives
and provide original, close readings of texts. Because LIT addresses a general literate audience, we encourage essays
unburdened by excessive theoretical jargon. Submissions must use MLA citation
style and should range in length from 5,000-10,000 words inclusive. Please
email your essay, along with a 100-200 word abstract to litjourn@yahoo.com.
Deadline for
submissions: June 3, 2015.
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