Attuning to the affective in literary tourism: Emotional states in Aberystwyth, Mon Amour.

Abstract

On a literary walking tour, many emotional ‘states’ are experienced by participants. These states have multiple causes, products and consequences, influenced in part by the socio-spatial identities of participants, their own imagined versions of the novel, and the material and cultural geographies of the tour itself. The Literary Atlas project sought to examine these emotional states by conducting literary walking tours based on English-language novels set in Wales. It attuned to the emotional states experienced by participants, in particular on a tour based around the locations cited in Malcolm Pryce’s Aberystwyth Mon Amour. It did so to examine the ways in which these states cohere and collide to actively constitute the ongoing composition of the real-and-imagined worlds produced through this emergent literary geography. Attuning to the affects of the literary tour suggest that the strengths and persistence of these emotional attachments – to individual’s own identities, imaginings and material places – come to define not only their place in the world, but also their world itself. As such, the ability of the participants to retain their cohesiveness as a group – however temporarily – in the face of difference and disagreement says much for their willingness to contextualise their own imaginings, and ultimately tolerate others’, in a world of relational multiplicity.

摘要

在文学旅游地漫步之旅中, 许多情感”状态”是由参与者体验的。这些状态有多种原因、产物和结果, 部分受到参与者的社会空间身份、他们自己想象的小说版本以及旅游本身的物质和文化地理的影响。文学地图集项目试图通过以威尔士为背景的英语小说为基础的文学漫步旅行来研究这些情感状态。它与参与者所经历的情感状态相协调, 尤其是在马尔科姆·普莱斯(Malcolm Pryce)的《阿伯里斯特威斯的爱情》(Aberystwyth Mon Amour)中所提到的地点进行徒步时。它这样做是为了研究这些状态是如何相互融合和碰撞的, 从而积极地构成通过这种新兴文学地理产生的现实和想象世界的持续构成。与文学之旅的影响相协调表明, 这些情感依恋的力量和持久性——对个人身份、想象和物质空间的依恋——不仅决定了他们在世界上的位置, 也决定了他们的世界本身。因此, 参与者在面对差异和分歧时保持团队凝聚力的能力(无论这种凝聚力多么短暂), 在一个关系多元化的世界里, 很大程度上说明了他们愿意将自己的想象融入情境, 并最终容忍他人的想象。

Keywords:

• literature
• geography
• affect
• relationality
• creative tourism

关键词:

• 文学
• 地理
• 情感
• 关系
• 创意旅游

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figure 1. Royal Pier, Aberystwyth (Source: Literary Atlas).

Figure 2. Amusement Arcade, Royal Pier (Source: Literary Atlas).

Figure 3. The Old College/Rock Factory (Source: Literary Atlas).

Figure 4. Archimedes on The Old College/Rock Factory (Source: Literary Atlas).

Figure 5. Old College/Rock Factory gargoyles (Source: Literary Atlas).

Notes

1 With respect to the geographical area focused on in this paper, Literature Wales have undertaken this type of quasi-educational literary tour in the past, including, for example, ‘The Wild West’ tour of Aberystwyth, including the work of Cynan Jones, Niall Griffiths and Samantha Wynne Rhydderch (see Literature Wales, 2013). It is also important to note that Literature Wales were a ‘project partner’ in the Literary Atlas project.

2 Although during the tour Pryce’s own connection with Aberystwyth was discussed, his actual places of writing were not. The author’s (fantastical?) admission that “the first draft of [Aberystwyth, Mon Amour] was finished on board a cargo ship off the coast of Guyana” (2001: 247) was therefore not drawn into the assembly of locations, ideas, and states of this tour’s literary geographies.

3 In each transcribed excerpt, each participant response is coded from 1, to note the range of difference voices contributing.

4 From the broader Literary Atlas project, it is clear that not all inhabitants, readers and writers of Aberstwyth shared this particular idyllic view of the town (see for example, http://www.literaryatlas.wales/en/novels/sheepshagger/)

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jon Anderson

Jon Anderson is a Professor of Human Geography at the School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, UK. His research interests focus on the relations between culture, place and identity, particularly the geographies, politics, and practices that emerge from these. His key publications include: Understanding Cultural Geography: Places and Traces (2010, 2015 Second Edition), Water Worlds: Human Geographies of the Ocean (edited with Peters, K, 2014), and Page and Place: Ongoing Compositions of Plot (2014).

Kieron Smith

Kieron Smith is a researcher working in the field of Welsh Writing in English. He has written on a range of topics connected with this field, including literary geography, media and television, and cultural policy. He is currently a Research Associate at Cardiff University.