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Wild things : nature, culture, and tourism in Ontario, 1790-1914 / Patricia Jasen

Author
Jasen, Patricia
Published
Toronto, Ont. : University of Toronto Press, [1995]
Copyright Date
©1995
Physical Description
1 online resource (x, 194 pages, 36 unnumbered pages of plates) : illustrations
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Contents
CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- 1. Introduction: Nature, Culture, and Tourism -- Tourists, Travellers, and the Semiotics of Tourism -- Tourism and Romanticism -- Tourism and Colonialism -- Who's Speaking? Class, Gender, and the Nature of Travel Narrative -- 2. Taming Niagara -- Terror and Transcendence -- The Romantic Itinerary -- Doing Niagara, or Niagara Undone -- 3. Wilderness Panorama -- Fairy Isles and Voyageurs -- The St Lawrence River Excursion -- An Image Transferred -- From Nature to Culture -- 4. Native Lands -- The Iconography of the Upper Lakes and Victorian ExcursionistsColonizing Eyes -- The Romance Fades -- 5. A Rest Cure in a Canoe -- Rest Cures and Racial Health -- Class, Gender, and the Wilderness Holiday -- My Heart Is in Muskoka -- Day Trippers -- 6. Close Encounters -- White Tourists and Native Guides -- Up the Nipigon -- Temagami and Beyond -- The Politics of Race -- Conclusion -- NOTES -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- V -- W -- Y -- PICTURE CREDITS
Summary
Annotation "Europeans in the nineteenth century were fascinated with the wild and the primitive. So compelling was the craving for a first-hand experience of wilderness that it provided a lasting foundation for tourism as a consumer industry. In this book, Patricia Jasen shows how the region now known as Ontario held special appeal for tourists seeking to indulge a passion for wild country or act out their fantasies of primitive life. Niagara Falls, the Thousand Islands, Muskoka, and the far reaches of Lake Superior all offered the experiences tourists valued most: the tranquil pleasures of the picturesque, the excitement of the sublime, and the sensations of nostalgia associated with Canada's disappearing wilderness." "Jasen situates her work within the context of recent writings about tourism history and the semiotics of tourism, about landscape perception and images of 'wildness' and 'wilderness, ' and about the travel narrative as a literary genre. She explores a number of major themes, including the imperialistic appropriation and commercialization of landscape into tourist images, services, and souvenirs. In a study of class, gender, and race, Jasen finds that by the end of the century most workers still had little opportunity for travel, while the middle classes had come to regard holidays as a right and a duty in the light of Social Darwinist concerns about preserving the health of the 'race.' Women travellers have been disregarded or marginalized in many studies of the history of tourism, but this book makes their presence known and analyses their experience. It also examines, against the backdrop of nineteenth-century racism and expansionism, the major role played by Native people in the tourist industry."--BOOK JACKET. Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Genre(s)
ISBN
9781442683495 (electronic bk.)
144268349X (electronic bk.)
0802006841
9780802006844
0802006841 (bound)
0802076386 (pbk.)
9780802076380
0802076386
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 155-183) and index.
Awards
Sir John A. McDonald Prize (nominated), 1996
View MARC record | catkey: 43162350