Overview

The imagination has long been associated with travel and tourism; from the seventeenth century when the showman and his peepshow box would take the village crowd to places, cities and lands through the power of stories, to today when we rely on a different range of boxes to whisk us away on our imaginative travels: the television, the cinema and the computer. Even simply the notion of travel, it would seem, gives us license to daydream. The imagination thus becomes a key concept that blurs the boundaries between our everyday lives and the idea of travel. Yet, despite what appears to be a close and comfortable link, there is an absence of scholarly material looking at travel and the imagination. Bringing together geographers, sociologists, cultural researchers, philosophers, anthropologists, visual researchers, archaeologists, heritage researchers, literary scholars and creative writers, this edited collection explores the socio-cultural phenomenon of imagination and travel. The volume reflects upon imagination in the context of many forms of physical and non-physical travel, inviting scholars to explore this fascinating, yet complex, area of inquiry in all of its wonderful colour, slipperiness, mystery and intrigue. The book intends to provide a catalyst for thinking, discussion, research and writing, with the vision of generating a cannon of scholarship on travel and the imagination that is currently absent from the literature.

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9781138248533

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Reviews

'This book closely engages in the experience and remembering of diverse spaces of our lives, virtual and very real and fleshy; familiar and otherwise. Much here is new, new angles, new examples, new kinds of stories. Its chapters are insightful of the way imagination works, flows and feels in body-mind, expressed in representation and otherwise; in human lives.' David Crouch, University of Derby, UK 'This collection reminds us that there is no human travel without imagination but also that travelling usually fuels that imagination. In an evocative way and through a refreshing multidisciplinary lens the various contributors tease out the highly dynamic relationship between the two concepts. As such, the book launches the reader into an imaginative scholarly journey that has just begun.' Noel B. Salazar, University of Leuven, Belgium 'Travel and Imagination lends itself to creativity and arguably a catalyst for imagination in people with travel as a focus. Many tourism student activities can also elevate the creativity in classes focusing on the travel industry and the imagination of the students.' European Journal of Tourism Research '... not only engaging and intellectually stimulating, but also presented in a creative and imaginative manner. ... It certainly engaged my own imagination as it led me on to the other chapters with a sense of discovery and excitement. ... Each chapter is well crafted and a delight to read in its own right.' Annals of Tourism Research

Author Information

Garth Lean, Russell Staiff and Emma Waterton are all at the University of Western Sydney, Australia.

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