Beautiful Conceptions and Tourist Kitsch: Wordsworth's "Written with a Slate Pencil ...".(Critical Essay)

THOSE WHO GO FORTH AS TOURISTS COME HOME WITH KITSCH. SUCH IS the banal tragedy of the search for authenticity: it leaves in its wake a Sherman's march of simulacra, an increased rather than diminished distance from its object. Worst of all, the travesty of historical experience escapes the experiencer. Kitsch is in the eye of the beholder rather than the possessor. It is often left for those who stayed home to break the news that the traveller's memorabilia consists only of so much junk.

What is it about such quests that turn on the seeker in such cruel ways? Historian Pierre ...

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