Works of theatre that depict grievous histories derive their force from making audible voices of the past. Such performances, theatrical or tourist, require the attentive belief of spectators. This engaging new study explores how theatricality works in each instance and how 'playing the part' of the listener can be understood in ethical terms.

"To call the twentieth century a catastrophic one, is to acknowledge the collapse of humanist values. Events such as the Holocaust, genocides in Rwanda and Cambodia, and numerous other atrocities demonstrated the utter failure of social and political frameworks. The incomprehensible scope of such suffering also profoundly challenged representational practices; as widely cited, Adorno stated that there could be no poetry after Auschwitz (34). Yet, we cannot turn away from such disasters. This thesis is concerned with how theatricality allows us to face such grievous history, and seeks to engage a theatrical analysis to help clarify what is at stake in such spectatorship. In order to examine theatricality as a mode of ethical responsiveness, I offer two contrasting sets of examples: tourist sites and theatrical performances. The sites I consider are examples of 'dark tourism, ' destinations that depict death and disaster. I explore how theatricality arises in response to the key challenge that underlies these places, which is how to make past suffering available to the spectator at the same time as acknowledging that such representation is never completely possible. In discussing a series of sites including Rwanda, European concentration camps, museums and memorials in South East Asia and a New Zealand example, it is this tension, and the difficulty of locating and sustaining an ethical performativity that I explore. In contrast with the tourist sites discussed, I consider theatrical examples that have sought to represent the same history. I discuss works such Jerzy Grotowski's Akropolis, Catherine Filloux's play, made in response to the Tuol Sleng Genocidal Museum in Cambodia, Photographs from S21, and Erik Ehn's Maria Kizito, which deals with the first trial of Rwandan genocidaires. Through this interdisciplinary analysis, I ask how theatricality's ability to make available something of the experience of the other might be thought of in ethical terms. I draw on the work of Emmanuel Levinas, particularly his image of the 'face of the other, ' in order to consider the relationship between spectator and absent other. I intend to demonstrate that a theatrical analysis helps us to understand such encounters, touristic and theatrical, more clearly"--Abstract.

Works of theatre that depict grievous histories derive their force from making audible voices of the past. Such performances, theatrical or tourist, require the attentive belief of spectators. This engaging new study explores how theatricality works in each instance and how 'playing the part' of the listener can be understood in ethical terms.

This book takes the concept of “dark tourism”—journeys to sites of death, suffering, and calamity—in an innovative yet essential direction by applying it to the virtual realms of literature, film and television, the Internet, and gaming. Essays focus both on the creative construction of imaginary journeys and the historiographic and civic consequences of such memorializations. From World War II time-travel novels to Game of Thrones, and from Internet reproductions of Rwandan genocide locations to invented tragedies in futuristic domains, authors from various fields examine the purpose and influence of simulated travels to morbid sites. Designed for a wide audience of scholars and travelers virtual and real, this volume raises awareness about the many pathways through which we encounter death experiences in contemporary society. What we know about the past—or, what we think we know about it—is shaped daily by such imagined journeys as these.

This edited collection expands scholarly and popular conversations about dark tourism in the American West. The phenomenon of dark tourism—traveling to sites of death, suffering, and disaster for entertainment or educational purposes—has been described and, on occasion, criticized for transforming misfortune and catastrophe into commodity. The impulse, however, continues, particularly in the American West: a liminal and contested space that resonates with stories of tragedy, violent conflict, and disaster. Contributions here specifically examine the mediation and shaping of these spaces into touristic destinations. The essays examine Western sites of massacre and battle (such as Sand Creek Massacre National Historic Site and the “Waco Siege”), sites of imprisonment (such as Japanese-American internment camps and Alcatraz Island), areas devastated by ecological disaster (such as Martin’s Cove and the Salton Sea), and unmediated sites (those sites left to the touristic imagination, with no interpretation of what occurred there, such as the Bennet-Arcane camp).

Mankind has been fascinated with and drawn to the macabre for many years. This is particularly evident in the growing popularity of dark tourism, which centers on locations known for death and suffering. Virtual Traumascapes and Exploring the Roots of Dark Tourism is a pivotal reference source featuring the latest scholarly research in which the rise of new technology platforms is not only changing tourism worldwide, but also facilitating the access to areas of war, mourning, and disaster. Including coverage on a number of topics such as sexual tourism, disaster recovery, and capitalism, this publication is ideally designed for academicians, researchers, and students seeking current research on concepts and methodologies of the dark tourism industry.

This handbook is the definitive reference text for the study of ‘dark tourism’, the contemporary commodification of death within international visitor economies. Shining a light on dark tourism and visitor sites of death or disaster allows us to better understand issues of global tourism mobilities, tourist experiences, the co-creation of touristic meaning, and ‘difficult heritage’ processes and practices. Adopting multidisciplinary perspectives from authors representing every continent, the book combines ‘real-world’ viewpoints from both industry and the media with conceptual underpinning, and offers comprehensive and grounded perspectives of ‘heritage that hurts’. The handbook adopts a progressive and thematic approach, including critical accounts of dark tourism history, dark tourism philosophy and theory, dark tourism in society and culture, dark tourism and heritage landscapes, the ‘dark tourist’ experience, and the business of dark tourism. The Palgrave Handbook of Dark Tourism Studies will appeal to students and scholars with an interest in aspects of memorialisation and morality in sociology, death studies, history, geography, cultural studies, philosophy, psychology, business management, museology and heritage tourism studies, politics, religious studies, and anthropology.