What ’ s lit got to do with it ? Deconstructing the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site
for the national parks .” Those motivated to visit because of the site ’ s importance as a National Park reported being primarily engaged with the natural features of the site instead of with the history of Sandburg or his literary works .
CONCLUSIONS AND DISCUSSION
What Is the Role of Literature in Literary Tourism ?
While the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site was , as expected , many things to many people , the findings suggest specific literary works were of little importance to visitors ’ overall experiences . Instead , findings indicate the connections to Sandburg , and in turn , his literature , were an added bonus but not central to the site ’ s meaning or the experiences visitors cultivated there . Few visitors alluded to any of Sandburg ’ s works , thus implying that his literary contributions had little effect on either their choice to visit the site or their experiences at the site . Rather , visitors overwhelmingly depicted the site as a place to recreate and to engage with nature in a rural pastoral setting . In contrast to many prevailing theories about literary tourism , at this particular site , there was little indication that visitors knew anything about either Sandburg or his Pulitzer Prize-winning literature . Further , findings here challenge the widely held notion that literature is the main reason tourists are drawn to literary sites as many scholars have theorized ( Buell 177 ; Johnson , 105 ; Lowe , 40 ; Santesso 379 ; Watson 11 ; Westover 12 ).
While Herbert also found little evidence in his examination of literary sites in Europe to support the notion that literature was central to visitor experiences , many respondents to his surveys had ( as other scholars have also predicted ) a “ good general knowledge ” ( 80 ) of the related author and / or their literary works ( Herbert 81 ). However , that was not the
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