Tourism and Imperfect Island Futures: Simulacra and Nostalgia in the Contemporary Mallorcan Dystopia

Abstract

The article discusses the triangulation of the notions of insularity, tourism, and dystopia on the basis of five works of Mallorcan literary fiction. It takes as its point of departure the wager that the genre of dystopia, given the hypertextual and time-based character of the dystopian narrative structure, is a form conducive to raising awareness about the over-saturation of mass tourism. In the article, five novelistic works of anticipatory fiction written by Mallorcan authors will be read from the perspective of the dystopian genre. In these speculative works, the aesthetic logic of the simulacrum becomes particularly important as a tool for the construction of tourist leisure scenarios. When those settings recreate emblems of pristine nature or cultural authenticity in order to promote a holiday destination, they undermine the potential for a pre-tourist nostalgia that might otherwise serve as a foundation upon which one could build an alternative future, one that does not entail mass tourism as an inevitable outcome.