The fantasy of authenticity: Touring with Lacan

Abstract

Amidst the plethora of research regarding the meaning of authenticity, there remains uncertainty as to the work authenticity performs in tourism. Existential authenticity conceptually shifts focus from the objects of touristic practice to a sense of Being, suggesting that authenticity can be achieved, albeit only in the liminal moments of tourism experiences. Psychoanalysis would contend otherwiseauthenticity will always be beyond our reach. In a 2006 publication, Tim Oakes broaches the topic when discussing authenticity as "an abyss". We revisit that idea, developing it further through the lens of Lacanian psychoanalysis to argue that authenticity is a fantasy. It is not an empty concept, however, but like all fantasies authenticity does important work, particularly in tourism marketing and touristic motivation and experience. To better understand how authenticity as a fantasy fosters tourism desire, it is necessary to develop a conceptual understanding of alienation in relation to tourism motivation. This paper moves alienation from the periphery to the center of tourism theories, demonstrates the dialectical relationship of authenticity/alienation, and posits that as a fantasy authenticity is a malleable concept that has the ability to contextualize the "something" that is missing from our lives. As such, it will remain salient in tourism.

An ‘authentic’ Aboriginal product: State marketing and the self‐fashioning of Indigenous experiences to Chinese tourists

“…For some scholars, Indigenous tourist experiences can be readily judged to be ‘appropriate’ or ‘inappropriate’ (Liljeblad, 2014). For others, tourism is a ‘liminal’ experience (Van Gennep, 1960; Heidegger, 1996; Hollinshead, 1998; Graburn, 2001; De Botton, 2002; Belhassen et al , 2008; Knudsen et al , 2016), even as it remains inevitably embedded within a socio‐political context typified by inequality (Lane and Waitt, 2001; Deutschlander and Miller, 2003; Jamal and Hill, 2004; Cole, 2007; Bresner, 2010; Bunten, 2010; Bennett et al , 2012; Rowse, 2014) The authors recognise the potential for Indigenous tourism to satisfy all of these divergent descriptors.…”

Travel back to school: use of humour in intertwining of objective authenticity and staged experiences

“…This thought is a transformation of Heidegger's (1962) concept of authenticity into the tourism sphere. To paraphrase Knudsen, Rickly and Vidon (2016), authenticity is a humorous fantasy that reassures us that, despite the fact that we encounter the everyday alienation from our true being, there remains certain humorous tourism places where this alienation can be avoided and where we as tourists can learn, laugh, emulate, and re-create ourselves.…”

“…The continuation of the debate changed the perception of the authenticity concept from the representation of real, true and original, to sincere and effortful, expressing involvement and the quality of the encounter (Pearce 2005). Knudsen, Rickly & Vidon (2016) argue that authenticity can be vague and unattainable, but it drives our individual and collective travel behaviour in significant ways, hence it is regarded as presenting a motivation to go in search of tourism experiences in the first place. The authors continue by explaining that a fantasy is a story that reconciles why a "thing" is missing from our life and that we can fulfil our desires for the authentic through travel.…”

How Can It Be More Real? A Case Study to Present the Authenticity of a Local Heritage District from the Perspective of Regional Spatial Morphology

“…In addition to the above-mentioned four major theories of authenticity in tourism and heritage research, in recent years, there have also been other perspectives; for example, studies have combined authenticity research and psychological research, such as Knudsen et al's work. In their article, "The fantasy of authenticity: Touring with Lacan", the research of tourism authenticity is combined with Lacanian psychology analysis [3]. As emphasized the value of inhabitation, and showed the "relation between social processes and spatial form" [19].…”