A small place, by Jamaica Kincaid: envisioning literary tourism in Antigua

ABSTRACT

This work departs from a reading of the novelistic essay A small place (1988), by Jamaica Kincaid, to analyse the representation of the tourism industry and of tourists in Antigua (the author's birthplace). From there, we present Kincaid's text as ‘tourist literature’ (Hendrix, 2014), also aiming to contribute to the examination of tourism-centred literary texts. Within the context of literature and tourism studies as well as comparative studies, this paper examines Kincaid's literary text in order to consider the promotion of literary tourism in Antigua. This example is then considered in light of recent contributions from literary tourism, space production, community-based tourism, mass tourism as well as responsible and sustainable tourism. Literary heritage as a resource for the tourism industry could bring tourists and locals closer and conspire to break down barriers between the largely dark-skinned hosts and the white tourists in Antigua.

KEYWORDS:

• A small place
• Jamaica Kincaid
• Antigua
• tourist
• host
• literary tourism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Rita Baleiro holds a PhD and a Masters in English and Portuguese Studies from the New University of Lisbon, and a First Degree in Modern Languages and Literatures – Portuguese and English – also from the New University of Lisbon. She is a senior lecturer of English for Specific Purposes, and Portuguese Language and Culture at the School of Management, Hospitality and Tourism of the University of the Algarve. She is a full member of the Research Centre for Comparative Studies (CEC), based at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Lisbon, where she co-coordinates the Lit&Tour project. She collaborates with the Tourism, Space and Urbanities Research Group of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and with CITUR (Center for Research, Development and Innovation in Tourism). She is also a member of the project Atlas of the literary landscapes in continental Portugal. She has been co-chief-editor of Dos Algarves: A Multidisciplinary e-Journal since 2007. Her research interests include literature studies, and the intersections between literature and tourism. She has authored and co-authored several national and international scientific publications.

Sílvia Quinteiro is a coordinating professor at the University of the Algarve – School of Management, Hospitality and Tourism. She holds a First Degree in Modern Languages and Literatures (Portuguese and German Studies) from the New University of Lisbon, and a Masters and PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Lisbon. She is a full member of the Research Centre for Comparative Studies (CEC), based at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Lisbon, where she created and now co-coordinates the Lit&Tour project. She collaborates with the Tourism, Space and Urbanities Research Group of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and with CITUR (Center for Research, Development and Innovation in Tourism). Her research interests include comparative literature, and the relation between literature and tourism. She has authored and co-authored several national and international scientific publications.

ORCID

Rita Baleiro http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3188-5150

Sílvia Quinteiro http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1809-7341

Notes

1 Namely in Kincaid's Annie John (1985), where tourists are referred to as new settlers and in Among flowers: A walk in the Himalayas (2005), where the author portrays herself as a tourist (Lang-Peralta, 2006, p. 42; Ewert, 2006, p. 118).

2 A concept coined by Rafat Ali (the CEO of Skift) in an August 2016 foreword to an article about the impacts of tourism in Iceland, entitled ‘Foreword: the coming perils of overtourism’ (https://skift.com/Iceland-tourism).

3 Although there is no statistical data that clearly illustrates the increase of literary tourism in recent years, there are clear signs of its progressive expansion: the publication of numerous literary guides, an increase of merchandise with literary associations (Robinson, 2004, p. 65), the progressive interest of the media, the increasing number of film-induced literary tours, of literary parks, literary festivals and specialised travel agencies.

4 See Literature and tourism (Robinson & Andersen, 2002), ‘Going on (literary) pilgrimage: Constructing literary trails with particular reference to KwaZulu-Natal’ (Stiebel, 2007), The literary tourist: Readers and places in Romantic and Victorian Britain (Watson, 2006), Literary tourism and nineteenth-century culture (Watson, 2009), Literatura y turismo (Argüelles-Meres et al., 2011) Turismo literario [Literary tourism] (Magadán Díaz & Rivas García, 2011), El libro como atractor turístico [the book as tourism attractor] (Magadán Díaz & Rivas García, 2013), Lit&Tour: Ensaios sobre literatura e turismo [Essays on literature and tourism] (Quinteiro & Baleiro, 2014), Researching literary tourism (Mansfield, 2015), Literatura e turismo: Turistas, viajantes e lugares literários [Literature and tourism: Tourists, travellers and literary places] (Quinteiro, Baleiro & Santos, 2016) e Literatura e turismo: Viagens, relatos e itinerários [Literature and tourism: Travels, travel accounts and itineraries] (Baleiro, Quinteiro & Santos, 2016).

5 See Kincaid (1988a, pp. 6–7).

6 Gmelch's book aims to minimise the ‘lack of local voice’, and the focus of the book is the tourist/host encounter, the asymmetries that separate them, and the still indifferent, racist and colonialist attitude of tourists (Gmelch, 2003/2012, pp. x, 27–41).

7 Almost 30 years past the publication of A small place, at present, poverty is still very much a reality. In fact, despite the increase ‘in arrivals, employment and revenue’, there has not been improvements in the living standards of average Caribbean citizens, since ‘approximately 36% of Latin America and the Caribbean's population live below the poverty line, the same percentage as a decade ago.” (Wright, 2016, p. 119).

8 Ethical products are often associated with tourists’ belief that their presence translates into results that promote: (i) Community satisfaction with tourism, (ii) Economic benefits of tourism, (ii) Water availability and conservation, (iii) Sewage treatment – wastewater management, (iv) Solid waste management, (v) Development control (Wright, 2016, p. 121).

9 Namely those connected with J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and with Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and some large literary festivals and fairs, such as the Jaipur Literature Festival (800,000 visitors) and the Miami Book Fair (250,000 visitors).

10 In Cordisburgo, Brazil, for example, local people embroider and sell images inspired by the narratives of Guimarães Rosa.

11 See Baleiro & Quinteiro (2017, pp. 20–23).