From George Sandʼs Majorca to "Spain is different": 2nd International Tourism Sessions, gender and nation

These sessions started on June 15 at 4 p.m., in which Professor Sasha Pack, from the State University of New York, talked about the ideology of free mobility, understood as a global process of our times, and the role of tourism. Then, Toni Vives, from the University of Barcelona analysed a specific historic episode: George Sandʼs stay in Majorca in 1849, and the disagreements of the writer with the people of the island. The book George Sand wrote after this experience contributed to the construction of the identity of Majorca as a tourist destination. In the last session, Donna Chambers, from the University of Sunderland, will talk on female sex tourism in southern countries in a postcolonial context.

Lola Fernández Poyatos, from the University of Alicante, will analyse, in the second session, the colonialist elements and traditional archetypes related to tourism, as well as the dual Francoist moral regarding women, in her lecture Colonialism and gender in the tourist image of Costa Blanca (1834-1960). Then, Alicia Fuentes Vega, from the Complutense University of Madrid, will give the lecture ". She will reconstruct the experience of two German photographers who collaborated with the National Patronage of Spanish Tourism in the thirties. This session will also include the debate Nation, Gender and Daily Life in southern Europe, by Alex Quiroga, from the Complutense University of Madrid, and Kostis Kornetis, from the University of Sheffield.

“Spain is different”

On June 22, Jorge Villaverde, from the Sorbonne University, will talk about the origins of the slogan “Spain is different”, used during the Franco dictatorship, and how these date back to the republican period of the National Patronage of Tourism. Then, Beatriz Correyero, from the Catholic University San Antonio de Murcia, will highlight the importance of the symbolic values with identity in the tourist speech during the dictatorship. Brice Chamoleau, from the University of Paris 8 - Vincennes Saint Denis, will talk about tourism and cultural modernization during the Franco regime in Barcelona and Lloret de Mar in the seventies. This session will end with a reflection on Easter, turned into a tourist product during the Franco regime, in the lecture by Eugenia Afinoguénova, professor at the Marquette University (United States).

The relation between architecture, tourism and landscape will be the theme of the lectures of the last session. Eric Storm, from Leiden University, will focus on the regionalist architecture, which appeared in late 19th century in tourist areas. This is an architectural style that was part of the reformist project Germany named Lebensreform, which looked for a simple family life in the countryside with a clear distinction between gender and class. Maribel Roselló, from the Technical University of Catalonia, will analyse the architecture of tourism and acritical appropriation of traditional references through the analysis of the peninsular Levantine coasts and the Balearic Islands. Nadia Fava, from the University of Girona, will talk about the first tourist village in Costa Brava: SʼAgaró, and the activities to promote the town in 1924. Last, Carme Gila, from the University of Cantabria, will analyse the relation between the architecture, tourism and landscape in Spain in the forties and fifties.

These sessions are coordinated by the UB lecturers Antoni Vives, Mary Nash and Gemma Torres, and are part of the project Tourism and Performativity of the Local Identity: Nation and Region from a Postcolonial and Gender Perspective (Catalonia and Balearic Islands: 19th-20th century)