ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the foundations for a new theoretical perspective on media tourism. This perspective will be based on a combination of the work of the French historian Pierre Nora and the American anthropologist John Caughey. In the mid-1980s, Pierre Nora introduced the concept lieux de mmoire. According to Nora, modern, Western society was characterized by an obsession with the past. With the loosening of traditional social bonds, individuals and social groups were desperately in search of the roots of a shared identity. Nora's ideas about the modern culture of memorialization have provided the foundation for a thorough and currently well-known series of studies of lieux de mmoire in France. Nora puts his analysis explicitly in the context of Modernism, a period which he sees as characterized by the erosion of traditional social bonds and the resultant desire for a shared past. The chapter shows why people need physical points of reference for their imagination.
