4. Travel Tropes

Tues., Nov. 4

Post #4: Travel Tropes: Write about one or more of some common “travel tropes”—the difference between tourists and travelers, the search for authenticity—in the context of your experience of, say, New York.  For example, what constitutes "authentic" New York?  Take a look at the National Geographic article on "the true" New York.  Or experience a bit of "authentic" Italy in New York's Little Italy, or some "authentic" China in Chinatown, and write about that.

Read:

1. Walker Percy, "The Loss of the Creature," from Message in the Bottle (on Google books and as pdf below) (Note: I had made this reading optional, but on second thought, it seems well worth your time.)
2. Dean MacCannell, “Staged Authenticity: Arrangements of Social Space in Tourist Settings” (pdf below)
3. Donald Redfoot, “Touristic Authenticity, Touristic Angst, and Modern Reality” (pdf below)
4. "Martin Parr: Tourists in the Frame" (see also Parr's home page and this blog post)