Author(s): Roque, Maria Isabel ; Oliveira, Marcelo ; Leal, Maria do Carmo ; Forte, Maria João ; Sousa, Sara ; Correia, Antónia
Date: 2017
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10174/21252
Origin: Repositório Científico da Universidade de Évora
Subject(s): Cultural tourism; José Saramago; Palácio de Mafra
Tour guides play a decisive role in mediating existing gaps in literary and cultural tourism, helping reconcile the appeal of literature with the material and immaterial heritage of destinations. The promotion and experience of Mafra and of its National Palace, former seasonal residence of the Kings of Portugal, based on the novel Baltasar and Blimunda, by Nobel Prize winner José Saramago, constitutes an extreme case, given the work’s clearly ideological stance and the author’s unorthodox narrative strategy. In order to ascertain the mediation strategies used by tour guides, a qualitative study was designed comprising participant observation of guided tours of the Palace and interviews with the guides involved. Although a challenge for tour guides, the contrasting stance provided by the novel, instead of an obstacle, proved to be highly productive in terms of the strategies used, allowing the guides a far greater discursive freedom than in more traditional visits.
