ABSTRACT
Literature, as a medium of storytelling, has a long and renowned history of stimulating rich imaginations of places and localities - ranging from the home to the far-away and fantastical - while at the same time stimulating readers to visit and experience these literary places of the imagination in situ. Today, in a world characterized by ongoing processes of globalization, digitization, and an increasingly ubiquitous nature of multimedia and smart ICTs, the practice of literary tourism is arguably more popular than ever before. How can this popularity be explained? What makes literature unique amidst a multimedia environment in stimulating the imagination and a subsequent desire to experience it in actuality? And how do contemporary literary tourists themselves make sense of and ascribe meaning to visiting the places related to their beloved stories? Building on insights derived from over four years of ethnographic research, based on a combination of over 35 in-depth interviews with readers, literary tourists and tour guides and participant observations, this chapter explores the multifaceted ways in which literature and place intertwine in a climate increasingly saturated by multi- and digital media.
