Description:
Signed Copy:
When the wealthy English set off on their European Grand Tours in the 1800s, they expected that Switzerland would inspire them with vistas of sublime grandeur. The landscape’s untamed romanticism was a crucial component of Switzerland’s national identity and cultural prestige.
Today, the Swiss landscape often resembles a theater set, where tourists are transported to officially designated areas of natural beauty to gaze upon epic views from the safety of stage-managed viewpoints, a process referred to as “sight sacralization” (MacCannell, 1989, p. 43–45). A place is named, then framed and elevated, before being enshrined, mechanically reproduced and finally socially reproduced across a variety of media. Tourists are both performers and spectators, part of the circle of representation in which “all we see is seen through the kaleidoscope of all that we have seen before” (Grundberg, 1999, p. 16).
Publication Date: 2016
Publisher: Lars Muller
Condition: Good
Book Size: 6.5 x 9 in. / 16.5 x 23 cm
Format: Softcover
Description:
Signed Copy:
When the wealthy English set off on their European Grand Tours in the 1800s, they expected that Switzerland would inspire them with vistas of sublime grandeur. The landscape’s untamed romanticism was a crucial component of Switzerland’s national identity and cultural prestige.
Today, the Swiss landscape often resembles a theater set, where tourists are transported to officially designated areas of natural beauty to gaze upon epic views from the safety of stage-managed viewpoints, a process referred to as “sight sacralization” (MacCannell, 1989, p. 43–45). A place is named, then framed and elevated, before being enshrined, mechanically reproduced and finally socially reproduced across a variety of media. Tourists are both performers and spectators, part of the circle of representation in which “all we see is seen through the kaleidoscope of all that we have seen before” (Grundberg, 1999, p. 16).
Publication Date: 2016
Publisher: Lars Muller
Condition: Good
Book Size: 6.5 x 9 in. / 16.5 x 23 cm
Format: Softcover