Dissimulada e Encoberta. A Ideologia Colonial no Imaginário Turístico Contemporâneo

The brutal process of colonisation of North Africa by the French in the 19th century paradoxically boosted the opening up of the dominated territories to tourism. The France of the times has left a treasure trove of works by Orientalist painters who portrayed the colonies as picturesque and exotic places, but simultaneously backward and full of "barbarian", "apathetic" and "bestial" inhabitants. We have a double objective in this essay: on the one hand, to demonstrate how Orientalist works of art, despite their irrefutable aesthetic qualities, materialised and propagated negative and stereotypical Tourist Imaginaries of North Africa. On the other hand, we reveal how this colonial ideology, inherent to Orientalism, remains present in the Contemporary Tourist Imaginary with respect to former North African colonies. To achieve this purpose, we use different research methods, including the study of primary sources of the period researched (texts and images), as well as the accurate reading of current sources as a theoretical basis for reflection

Art · Humanities · Political science · Cultural, Media, and Literary Studies · Literature, Culture, and Criticism · Urban and sociocultural dynamics