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(Re)mapping the nation

Sound of Music tourism and national identity in Austria, ca 2000 CE

Bucknell University, USA, ggraml{at}bucknell.edu

In this article I investigate how tourist performances are linked with performances of national identity. Focusing on the guided tours in Salzburg, Austria, that promote the shooting locations of the 1965 Hollywood production The Sound of Music, I trace the shifting meaning of this tourist phenomenon in the context of a critical stage of the role of the ‘national’ in general and of Austrian national identity in particular. My article highlights how tourist performances create a ‘contact zone’ that allows for the continuous reinvention of national identity, not only as a place of resistance against global developments but, as the case of Austria shows, as a spatial configuration that is in itself mobile and open to new developments. I conclude by showing how a performative construction of places redefines the meaning of authenticity, such that tourist practices are not the opposite of ‘real’ identity performances but, rather, a blueprint for building stable places in an ever-changing world.

Key Words: authenticity • national identity • performance • Sound of Music • tourism

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