Tourism, Mass Culture and Literature: Two Travel Books by Terenci Moix Published in the 1970s

Abstract

This article analyses two travel books by Terenci Moix (pseudonym of Ramon Moix): Terenci del Nil (1970) and Terenci als U.S.A. (1974). The two books, written once the writer had made each trip, demonstrate the impact of tourism, mass culture and social movements on the imaginary representations of Egypt and the United States, as well as topics like homosexuality and colonialism. These will all be explored, while taking into account Moix’s adoption of a language influenced by the cultural and semiotic studies of the 1960s, which focus on phenomena such as kitsch and new forms of visual communication.