Tourists at the Taj (International Library of Sociology) (Paperback)

by Tim Edensor (Author) "The Taj Mahal is one of the most familar tourist sites in the world, and certainly one of the best-known global icons..." (more)
Key Phrases: heterogeneous tourist space, most package tourists, enclavic tourist space, Taj Mahal, Taj Ganj, Agra Cantonment (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
Tourists at the Taj is a must-read for all who are interested in the phenomenon of tourism, the construction of meanings around sites and sights, and/or contemporary India.it is a fine study that summarizes much of the scholarship on tourism, introduces a useful vocabulary, and articulates the contested nature of sites frequented by tourists. Art historians will find it a thought-provoking work, opening new avenues for exploring not only the intersection between tourism and art history, but also the narratives about monuments..

In this fascinating study, the author attempts to unravel the multiple narratives of the Taj [Mahal] told and performed by tourists. Edensor is mindful that tourism and ethnography, like colonialism, are forms of intervention, inhabiting a space created by Western power. --Frank J. Korom, Boston Univ. for Religious Studies Review.
...it certainly makes for a fine text within the cultural study of tourism.
–Annals of Tourism Research

This volume presents a rich mix of description and appli cable theory...well documented discussion on the construction of touristic spaces....Upper-division undergraduates and above.
–Choice, June 1999

Product Description
The Taj Mahal has long been a subject for photography and poetry, but this book presents the first sociological analysis of the Taj as a cultural phenomenon. Tim Edensor examines the conflicting narratives which surround the site: postcolonial views of the monument as a symbol of love, of India and of splendid exuberance; and those which challenge this ethnocentricity, for whom the Taj is the symbolic center of Islamic power or a site of Moghul appropriation. He discusses many of the tourist practices around the Taj and considers the notion of tourism in a wider context. Clearly written and fascinatingly illustrated, this book describes tourism as "performance" and the tourist site as a "stage" on which tourists are directed and rehearsed, improvising cultural conventions in the complex production of leisure space.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Routledge (August 13, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415167132
• ISBN-13: 978-0415167130
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: No customer reviews yet. Be the first.
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #142,132 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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