L’aspect émotionnel de la visite guidée assurée par un guide-conférencier professionnel à travers une étude de cas d’une visite du lieu de mémoire (Paneriai)

Abstract

ContextThe guided tour is a highly multidisciplinary practice. From a communication and information sciences perspective, its intercultural character can be seen as a main competence of the professional guide. Scholars and researchers have often turned their attention to the communication techniques and technologies at work in the guided tour. However, the emotional aspect of the practice remains largely unexplored. ObjectiveThis study examines the experience of a guided tour of a memorial site, and focuses on the emotions inspired by the site – themes of death, political repressions, and human life – in order to understand how emotions are taken into account by the professional tourist guide during an interaction between the visited site, the guide, and the visitors. MethodThe data was collected through empirically based qualitative methods: on-site survey of visitors, face-to-face semi-structured interviews, and the body of scholarly literature. That data was used to construct a case study of Paneriai, a Holocaust memorial in Lithuania. The findings are based on the following ideas: the site-specific communication is mostly fact-based information provided to facilitate an understanding of the site, and not to provoke or entertain the visitor. A logically structured discourse and specific knowledge are necessary to break down the barriers of understanding. The dominant emotions identified are fear, compassion, sadness. They can be amplified by the guide's narrative and could lead to psychological distress. LimitsIt might be interesting to understand how the visitors overcome their suffering through a belief or ideal. However, the questionnaire did not cover this theme, as it could not be anticipated. Nevertheless, the case study gives a possibility to clarify the limits of the guide's competence: to deal more with convictions rather than beliefs, to name the emotions but not to treat them. In this way, the guide creates an opportunity to recognize the emotions with which visitors might struggle, and to minimize the emotional tension that often occurs in this type of place. PerspectiveThis observation underlines the guide's responsibility, which could be important in conceptualizing her/his professional status and role.