The role of tourism in the production of cultural memory: The case of ‘Homesick Tourism’ in Poland

Abstract

Individual and collective forms of memory are driving forces behind the phenomenon of ‘homesick tourism’, the journeys undertaken by German expellees and refugees to their former homes in what is now Poland. Based on a content analysis of travel reports written by homesick tourists, this article applies concepts and theoretical approaches in the field of Memory Studies to the field of tourism, arguing that travelling can be considered an extension of the process of remembering. With reference to specific examples, it is illustrated how the encounter of ‘personal memory sites’ impacts autobiographical memory and how the activities of the homesick tourists and the transnational exchange and circulation of memory facilitated through personal contacts contributes to the emergence of new discourses about the past and ultimately the production of cultural memory.

Keywords

Cultural memory expellees German homesick tourism memory sites Poland

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