Souvenir (Object Lessons)

Synopsis

Or As Long As People Have Traveled To Distant Lands, They Have Brought Home Objects To Certify The Journey. More Than Mere Merchandise, These Travel Souvenirs Take On A Personal And Cultural Meaning That Goes Beyond The Object Itself. Drawing On Several Millennia Of Examples--from The Relic-driven Quests Of Early Christians, To The Mass-produced Tchotchkes That Line The Shelves Of A Disney Gift Shop--travel Writer Rolf Potts Delves Into A Complicated History That Explores Issues Of Authenticity, Cultural Obligation, Market Forces, Human Suffering, And Self-presentation. More Than Just Objects, Souvenirs Are A Personalized Form Of Folk Storytelling That Enable People To Make Sense Of The World And Their Place In It-- Introduction: An Embarrassment Of Eiffel Towers -- Souvenirs In The Age Of Pilgrimage -- Souvenirs In The Age Of Enlightenment -- Interlude: Museums Of The Personal -- Souvenirs In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction -- Souvenirs And Human Suffering -- Souvenirs And (the Complicated Notion Of) Authenticity -- Souvenirs, Memory, And The Shortness Of Life. Rolf Potts. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.