This, that, and the other: Fraught possibilities of the souvenir

Abstract

Souvenirs are evidence of a complex interaction between Self and Other that is apprehended and enlivened while traveling. Souvenirs are objects of performative potential that suggest, capture, activate, and bring home a useful melding of Self and Other-other people, other places, other times, other imaginaries, other memories. By examining personal narratives about the uses and meanings of souvenirs and the memories they inspire, we explore how these objects can become more than travel markers. We suggest that souvenirs can serve as positive fetishes, touchstones for inspiring resistant narratives and performances in which an imagined or appropriated Other joins with the Self-a kind of memory-morphing that opens up possibilities for tactical maneuvers of liberating performance in the play of everyday life.

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