Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Format of Original

19 p.

Publication Date

2014

Publisher

Taylor & Francis

Source Publication

Journal of Tourism History

Source ISSN

1755-182X

Original Item ID

doi: 10.1080/1755182X.2014.954639

Abstract

This article examines the debates about the Andalusian ‘bandoleros’ (bandits) in the context of early tourism as a state-guided policy in Spain. As we argue, the development of tourism made Spanish intellectuals reconsider the real armed activity in Andalucía as part of Spanish national heritage and a tourist attraction. Consistent with the stereotypical image of Spain coined by the Romantic travelers, such an early heritagization of brigandry reveals the role of the élites in recasting exotic imagery into modern tourism-shaped identities: in the hands of early century writers, bandits were reshaped as part of the ‘modern picturesque’. Furthermore, the role given to brigands in early cinema allows one to see how the early heritage discourse bridged transnational and centralist interests at the expense of the regional ones, thus foreshadowing the debates about hegemony in present-day heritage studies.

Comments

Accepted version.Journal of Tourism History, Vol. 6, No. 1 (2014): 38-56. DOI. © 2014 Taylor & Francis (Routledge). Used with permission.

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