type:論文

type:Article

In this paper I will review the two meanings of authenticity (namely, objective and constructive authenticity): I will propose that we need further investigation into today's tourist experiences and clarify an alternative notion of authenticity for tourists from an "existential approach". In the notion of "staged authenticity", MacCanell supposed "objective authenticity," which involves a museum-linked usage of the authenticity of the originals that are also the toured objects to be perceived by tourists. By "constructive authenticity" is meant the result of social construction. Therefore things appear authentic not because they are inherently authentic, but because they are constructed. This notion is thus relative, negotiable, contextually determined, and even ideological. It can be the projection of one's dreams, stereotyped images, and expectations imposed on toured objects. As E. Cohen said, "Authenticity is an eminently modern value" [Cohen 1988:374]. Its emergence is closely related to the impact of modernity upon the unity of social existence. And "Modern man is seen, from the perspective of a contemporary existential philosophical anthropology, as being in quest of authenticity." Since modern society is inauthentic, the alienated modern tourist in quest of authenticity looks elsewhere for the pristine, the primitive, the natural life which is as yet untouched by modernity. He hopes to find it in other times and other places, since it is absent from his own world [Cohen 1988:374]. From the existential point of view, we can clarify the meaning of the experiences for the tourists. The tourists themselves think they have gained authentic experiences. This can, however, still be judged as inauthentic, if the toured objects are in fact false, contrived, or what MacCanell calls "staged authenticity". Here we need an "existential approach" for the analysis of this kind of touristic experience of today. "The issue of whether the toured objects are authentic is irrelevant or less relevant. What tourists seek are their own authentic selves and inter-subjective authenticity" [Wang 1999:366]. Therefore the notion of sincerity becomes important. For example, marae visit (in New Zealand Maori tours), a so-called staged back-region approach, is taken by local operators in which the point of contact is made to revolve around issues of sincerity as well as authenticity. The notion of sincerity implies an interactive sharing of experience between participants within a given tourism encounter [Taylor 2001:16]. The notion of sincerity is significantly different from that of authenticity in that it occurs in the zone of contact among participating groups or individuals, rather than appearing as an internal quality of a thing, self, or Other. An existentially "authentic" encounter could be available only in an ideal traditional society. Today we cannot expect the ideal communitas which would be observed in the liminality. For us in a touristic experience it must be a kind of pseudo-communitas which can be found in the "liminoid" circumstance which Turner named instead of a liminal one. Since the existential approach can explain a wider spectrum of tourist phenomena than the conventional approach, it therefore opens up broad prospects for tourist experiences.

identifier:4

identifier:KJ00005424359