Contemporary Travel Writers' Experiences of Self: Discovery, Transformation and (Online) Construction

Madelene McWha

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

Abstract

This paper engages with the debated concepts of the self versus selves and explores how contemporary travel writers consider their sense of self or selves in their travel texts. Forty-seven travel writers were interviewed in-depth and three types of selves were identified using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), including: the discoverable essential self, the transformable self and the constructed (online) self. Further, social media platforms and blogs have created a means for writers to co-construct online versions of themselves through their readers and other travel writers who share and publicise one anothers' posts online. These findings support the studies of Belk (2013), who argued that the self can be extended in a digital world, as well as Cohen (2010), who presented the self as mutiple and constructed for different social settings.
Original languageEnglish
Publication statusPublished - 2017
Externally publishedYes
EventCouncil for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education conference 2017 - University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Duration: 7 Feb 201710 Feb 2017
Conference number: 27th

Conference

ConferenceCouncil for Australasian Tourism and Hospitality Education conference 2017
Abbreviated titleCAUTHE 2017
Country/TerritoryNew Zealand
CityDunedin
Period7/02/1710/02/17

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