Lokalne przewodniki turystyczne — heroikomiczna gra z odbiorcą

Abstrakt

Guide books to small towns from the Warsaw suburban region are presented here as suggesting for their readers a kind of make-believe game. Tourists sightseeing these towns are encouraged to pretend that they are at the seaside, or going on an excursion to famous monuments. Local guide books imitate the conventions of the genre, but there are differences between the narratives ad-dressed to a strictly local audience and those intended for nationwide distribution. While in local guide books space is often described from the point of view of the walker (or cyclist), non-local ones more often adopt the perspective of a map. Local and non-local discourse often intertwine and lines between genres become blurred. However, the main difference is that while non-local guide books try to build the illusion of authenticity, local ones aim for the illusion of a scene. While persuading the readers to enter this mock-heroic game, they endeavour to add exotic flavour to everyday sur-roundings.