Leisure, refuge and solidarity: messages in visitors’ books as microforms of travel writing

Rita Singer

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)
28 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Visitors’ books not only trace developments in modern tourism, but they also reveal changes in the socio-cultural and language attitudes of travellers from all walks of life over prolonged periods of time. This article investigates messages in visitors’ books from Wales from the mid-nineteenth century up to the present and argues for their recognition as microforms of travel writing. Despite their brevity, entries in visitors’ books are a highly complex form of travel writing particularly in the inscribers’ self-fashioning of identity for future readers. The article examines how writerly choices are not only directly rooted in the discourse of travel, but also in socio-political circumstances in the individual travellers’ countries of origin and their travel destinations.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)392-408
Number of pages17
JournalStudies in Travel Writing
Volume20
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 09 Mar 2017
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • travel writing
  • visitors' books
  • tourism
  • Wales
  • Europe
  • micro-texts
  • visitors’ books

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