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" Travels in socialism : "
Muller, Claudia Andrea
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1098560
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| Doc. No
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TLets546837
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| Main Entry
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Muller, Claudia Andrea
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| Title & Author
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Travels in socialism :\ Muller, Claudia Andrea
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| College
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Leeds Metropolitan University
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| Date
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2010
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| student score
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2010
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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While European tourism as a social practice continues to be interrogated in academiccircles, it is generally assumed to be a mark of capitalist societies, and yet, it is not thatlong ago that large expanses of Eastern Europe were ideologically outside of capitalism.To date few researchers have examined the nature of tourism in Eastern European socialistcountries. Partly this is a function of limited access to the recent historic pasts of suchcountries but arguably it also reflects an assumption/belief in the West that tourism waslittle practised and, if it was, it was wholly directed by the state. This thesis focuses on holidayexperiences in socialist countries prior to 1989 and in particular it explores the experiencesof East German tourists who travelled to other socialist countries between 1971and 1989. The emphasis is upon the role that these holidays played, both for the touristsand for the government of the German Democratic Republic (GDR). This study is framedby an understanding that tourist experiences are not only subject to wider historical developments,such as the Cold War and the dictatorial socialist regime of the GDR, but alsocontribute to such developments and historical processes.The thesis is situated in the interface of three major debates. The first relates to how theexperiences of former East Germans citizens can contribute to the historical knowledgeabout the GDR. The second relates to the recording and meaning of 'experience' in thecontext of understanding tourism. And third, it relates to the wider debate on the influenceof experience, as an epistemological concept, in historical writing.The experiences of East German tourists are approached through oral history interviewswith thirteen individuals who formerly lived in the GDR and spent holidays in other socialistcountries before 1989. In addition to the recollections of tourist experiences, the thesisexamined archival documents (files from the GDR secret police, various GDR state institutionsconcerned with tourism, guidebooks and tourism brochures etc.), to gain a deeperunderstanding as to how personal experiences related to the discourses and politicalmeasures controlling tourism and consumption during and after the existence of the GDR.The approach to these different sources stems from the "history of everyday life" ("Alltagsgeschichte"),and it is shown that in order to gain an understanding of a historical process,the relationship between narrative, memory, experience and practice needs to be considered.This analysis revealed both 'ordinary' touristic practices and narratives amongst GDR citizensas well as politicised experience. It is shown that through tourists' comparing theEast and the West, East German tourists made sense of what they encountered duringtheir holidays in relation to former experiences and longings. The notion of escape reflectssuch a longing. It is argued that the focus of an analysis of tourists' wishes to escapes should lie with the tourists' efforts to attain escape. These efforts constituted an importantdynamic in the GDR history.
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Leeds Metropolitan University
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