Literary Place Research Articles

Artistic and literary places in France as tourist attractions

As heritage and cultural tourism assume greater significance, the variety of ‘tourist places’ covered by that description has become more evident. Places associated with writers, painters and others can use those connections to promote a specific kind of image and to attract visitors. There is a general assumption that such artistic or literary places will attract the more discerning visitor and this is tested with reference to three small towns in France. The evidence presented here suggests that the visitor group is more diverse and includes both ‘generalist’ tourists and those who come to a place with a very specific purpose in mind. Among the influences upon the tourist perception and expectation are the ways in which the place is promoted, the nature of the link with an artist or writer, and the other attractions which the place has to offer tourists and visitors.

The cultural values of literary tourism

Literary tourism is defined and its social and cultural meanings explored through a case study of visitors to the Lake District home of English children's writer Beatrix Potter. Johnson's circuits of culture diagram conceptualizes cultural production and consumption theoretically and is applied to literary tourism. Emphasizing consumers of the touristic experience, qualitative methods are used to assess how people were interpreting the literary place. As a form of cultural communication, this kind of tourism is not only about Beatrix Potter. Rather, the author has been appropriated symbolically as an expression of values for childhood, countryside, authenticity, and heritage preservation.

The Role of Place in Literature by Leonard Lutwack

154 Western American Literature The Role of Place in Literature. By Leonard Lutwack. (Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1984. 274 pages, n.p.) In The Role of Place in Literature, Leonard Lutwack explores the con­ cept of literary place in European and American literature, focusing on the properties and uses of place as metaphor, place as pervasive symbol, and— of special interest to western literature scholars—place in the American landcape , especially the myths of El Dorado, the garden and the wilderness. A final chapter surveys placelessness in contemporary literature. Lutwack surveys his subject from so many perspectives and includes so much literature that his analysis of particular works or authors is often mis­ leading. For example, on the basis of his analysis of One of Ours, Lutwack concludes that Cather became disillusioned with America and found true devotion to the land among the French peasants, and that Claude would have returned to “operate his old family farm” had he not died in World War I (157)\ Still, as a work of literary analysis, The Role of Place in Literature is an important addition to literary criticism and of special interest to western litera­ ture scholars. Lutwack’s catalogue of literature and his demonstration of the pervasive influence of place, not only as “inhabitable space” but also as meta­ phor and myth, provides scholars with an impressive array of evidence of the tradition behind those works that focus especially on the land. Lutwack may be right in his assertion that the images of the Garden, El Dorado and the wilderness focus on the American place as a passageway, a means rather than an end (178). This image of movement rather than rootedness still informs our attitude towards the American West. In his chap­ ter entitled “National Literature,” Lutwack gives us a starting place for fur­ ther study to corroborate or refute the generalizations that he outlines in this important study. DIANE DUFYA QUANTIC Wichita State University Wilderness: The Way Ahead. Edited by Vance Martin and Mary Inglis. (Forres, Scotland: Findhorn Press, and Middleton, Wisconsin: Lorian Press, 1984. 319 pages, $10.50.) The Third World Wilderness Congress, held at Findhorn, Scotland in 1983, must have been filled with an unusual spirit of both portent and hope, and perhaps as well an unusual degree of fellow-feeling, for the proceedings, collected here, are remarkably and consistently cogent. There is a strong sense that what is being said here matters. Most of the essays speak from the heart, conveying the essential connectedness that may be the most important mean­ ing of wilderness. ...

The Novels of Sergio Galindo: Planes of Human Relationship

S ERGIO GALINDO'S four novels have established him firmly in the panorama of present-day Mexican letters, yet his chronological age allows us to expect worthy additions to what he has already accomplished. His literary age places him in a group that is older than the stridently innovative novelists who have appeared in the last three years. At the same time, we must not overlook the fact that he is strongly revisionist with regard to generally accepted values. His work is not a vociferous protest, nor does it deny the relevance of the past. Rather, it shows a deep and calm concern for man's ability to recognize and cope with the total reality in which he exists. Galindo was born in Xalapa, Veracruz, in 1926. Some of the best moments of his fiction are based in that region, but his concern for the region is only the artist's concern for what he has experienced. The broader implications of his work are not limited by any geographical boundaries. His own experience has been wide. He studied in Mexico and in France. He held a fellowship at the Centro Mexicano de Escritores. Later he directed the publishing activities of the Universidad Veracruzana, and is now Jefe del Departamento de Coordinaci6n of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. After a silence of several years which followed a volume of short stories, Galindo published his first work of consequence in 1958, a short novel entitled Polvos de arroz. The scene is both his native region and Mexico City. His second novel, La justicia de enero (1959), takes place largely in the capital and is based on the author's experience as an immigration official. El Bordo (1960) is set in the Xalapa area, and the scene of La comparsa (1964) is specifically the city of Xalapa. These novels show the author's knowledge of the region, the city, and the university community. Galindo is currently working on a fifth novel, and we may expect that it too will be a work born of its creator's experience. But it should be quite clear that this experience serves only to suggest the work. The artist takes over, and reality is seen, explored, and created. The most striking quality of Galindo's novels is the exactness of his insight into human reactions and relationships. We become aware of this precision first through recognizing his accuracy in choosing just the right detail to communicate the feeling of a circumstance or of a reaction to a circumstance. Then our immediate impulse is to share the moment with someone else.

Literary Place Names

Literary Place Names