This thesis adopts post-colonial theory as a reading strategy to address both fiction and interdisciplinary critical writing on the subject of tourism. The introduction argues for the viability of this methodology, highlighting similarities between the ideological underpinnings of tourism and imperialism, especially in relation to the power of the gaze. The first chapter draws on analyses of early exploration and travel writing to advance the argument that as the ideology of empire was encoded in travel writing, so contemporary tourist culture, in so far as it has inherited this discourse, continues to operate within it. I suggest that in much the same way as the explorer???s gaze was a form of creating knowledge disseminated through writing, fiction constitutes a cultural production that contests the power of the gaze. The second chapter focuses on the ambivalent effects of the commodification of culture caused by the tourist industry. I argue that cultural tourism, centred on heritage and history, has constituted a platform from which to review conventional representations of Australian history in a way that demonstrates the relevance of heritage to contemporary national narratives. The third and final chapter examines the relationship between cultural performances in tourism and subject formation, contending that the repetitive nature of performance offers an ideal opportunity to interpolate transformative views of both locals and tourists into the conventional tourist discourse.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/187057 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Vogler, Agnes, School of English, UNSW |
| Publisher | Awarded by:University of New South Wales. School of English |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Copyright Agnes Vogler, http://unsworks.unsw.edu.au/copyright |
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