Lieux d’Imagination and Historical Fiction: The lure and blur of the real in Media Tourism.

Abstract

This article employs autoethnography and the Lieux d’imagination framework to critique the experience of walking a Media Tourism trail based on a historical novel, expanding beyond the usual focus on purely fictional works. The historical fiction of The Gallows Pole blurs with complementary West Yorkshire landscapes, physical markers and heritage to produce a historically-informed Place of Imagination. This distinctive variant of Lieux d’imagination is characterised by a sense of rootedness and connection to the past, grounded in the belief that the narrative, or something similar, occurred. This belief shapes a meaningful imaginative experience, offering the lure of the real. A conceptual framework identifies elements of both historically-informed and fiction-based media that inform and distinguish corresponding tourist experiences.