Dark tourism and place identity: managing and interpreting dark places (contemporary geographies of leisures, tourism and mobility)

摘要

Leanne White and Elspeth Frew present a compilation that explores the roots of dark tourism and the problems of place identity. Overall, the work is formed by 19 chapters, which although interesting, do not always follow the same argument. The dichotomy of dark tourism is based on the human conceptualization of death, the imagination that one day we and this world may not exist any longer. As this book noted, the significance of dark tourism consists in creating a consciousness that a violent death has taken place, an event which not only should be remembered but also glorify the biographies of the victims. Public opinion is shaped toward the ethic of honouring the memories of the victims, and reasons behind their deaths. A most troubling aspect seems to be the choice of the event to be memorialized according to the political discourse the state seeks to impose. Scholars face serious difficulties in studying dark tourism sites for two main reasons. First, the concept of heritage depends on local political interests, which sometimes defy the national discourse. Second, the indicators by which a site is identified as a memorial are not always clear. The primary concerns, which are explored through this book, are to understand not only the decision of political leaders but also the local community or the victims to negotiate a message which can be broadly disseminated. The way locals and visitors appropriate situations and spaces of trauma and suffering is one of the main goals of dark tourism researchers. Methodologically, they believe that understanding the complex interconnection of spaces, facts, and people may give further accounts of past events. Nonetheless, the belief, which this book holds that dark tourism may be used to understand history, should be reconsidered.