Tourists at the Taj: Performance and Meaning at a Symbolic Site / Edition 1

by Tim Edensor

Overview

Clearly written and fascinatingly illustrated, Tourists at the Taj describes the conflicting narratives which surround the site. For some the Taj is an evocative symbol of the colonial past. For others it is a symbolic centre of Islamic power. For many of the thousands of tourists that visit it each year it is simply a monument of love.
The author shows how tourism can be seen as a performance and the tourist site as a stage on which tourists are directed and rehearsed but also able to improvise their own cultural rituals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415167123
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/09/1998
Series:	International Library of Sociology
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Tim Edensor is lecturer and researcher in the department of cultural studies at Staffordshire University. He has researched extensively in tourist practices and popular culture.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1 Constructing tourist space 2 The regulation of tourist space 3 Narratives of the Taj Mahal 4 Walking, gazing, photographing and remembering at the Taj 5 Enclavic and heterogenous tourist spaces in Agra 6 Tourist plans for Agra and the Taj 7 Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

Edensor (cultural studies, Staffordshire U.) attempts to sidestep the ethnocentric, functionalist, and over-generalized concepts present in most theories of tourism by portraying a range of culturally situated tourist narratives and performances (e.g. narration, walking, gazing, photographing, and remembering). He shows that tourism is a continually changing set of processes. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

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