Reviewed by:

• Women, Performance and the Material of Memory: The Archival Tourist, 1780–1915 by Laura Engel
• Alexandra L. Milsom (bio)

The field of tourism theory has always relied on the imagery of the theatre as a vehicle. Dean MacCannell’s germinal 1973 paper on tourism foregrounds this metaphor in its title: “Staged Authenticity: Arrangements of Social Space in Tourist Settings” (American Journal of Sociology 79, no. 3 [1973]: 589–603). MacCannell based his theory of tourism on Erving Goffman’s influential work on our “back”- and “front”-facing personae in The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (1959) to help him explain what is happening when tourists travel. In short: tourists often get presented with “front”-stage performances of local authenticity, such as a gondolier singing opera while paddling Venetian canals, but they are seeking “back”-stage access to authenticate their experiences. If you note the ubiquity of words such as “hidden” or “local” in touristic literature, you will see the premium placed on supposedly “back”-stage sites. Literary scholars have made use of tourism theory from time to time, but Laura Engel’s Women, Performance and the Material of Memory: The Archival Tourist, 1780–1915 renews this theoretical framework for archival work, using its terms to propose a method of regarding one’s own research practices. This theoretical reframing helpfully examines the dynamics of voyeurism, what to make of physical contact with objects in the archive, and notions of authenticity that arise in processes of working with material objects from the past.

This articulation of tourism theory as a means for regarding archival work is not the only theoretical breakthrough of Engel’s highly readable monograph. Overtop this first framework—one rooted in the social science of Goffman and MacCannell—Engel draws upon studies in performance and celebrity, more familiar than tourism theory to literary scholars of the eigh teenth and nineteenth centuries, to look at the material objects under review in each chapter. Engel is explicit about the stakes of this cross-pollination, explaining that “tourism is celebrating the archives and the archives are filled with tourists. While there are many ways to distinguish between the two, linking them may allow us to imagine ourselves as dynamic embodied participants in the translation between the past and the present” (19). In retraining the eye backwards on the archival scholar as well as forward on the performance of identities in eighteenth-century art, literature, and theatre, Engel plays a deft trick—one that pays off.

To those already familiar with Engel’s two important books on eighteenth-century performance and gender, her explicit and recurring application of tourism theory throughout this latest volume only adds [End Page 273] to one’s appreciation of her deft analysis of materiality and performance. The objects of Engel’s inquiry, which she explains are “specifically tied to memory and the staging or representation/recreation of corporeal presence” (2), follow a chronological sequence. This sequence of chapters begins with an exploration of Elizabeth Inchbald’s pocket diaries. It con tinues with Thomas Lawrence’s portraits of and correspondence with Sarah Siddons and her daughters Sally and Maria, and then offers a chapter examining the Countess of Blessington’s estate sale through the lens of her Magic Lantern; or, Sketches of Scenes in the Metropolis (1822) (itself an important theoretical examination of tourism). The penultimate chapter assesses the significance of Isabella Beetham and her daughter Jane Read’s silhouettes and Madame Tussaud’s wax sculptures. The book concludes with Fanny Kemble’s plantation journal and Amelia

M. Watson’s subsequent photographs of Kemble’s land. Working with the material objects that form the centre of this work, Engel is self-conscious of her role as the sorter and chronicler of materiality. She writes almost as a tour guide, leading readers deftly across the centuries and through diverse media. Most of the figures under scrutiny in this book were performers, artists, and celebrities, and Engel’s theoretical approach calls due attention to the feeling of self-consciousness...

审核人：

• 妇女，表演和记忆的材料：档案游客，1780–1915年，劳拉·恩格尔（Laura Engel）
• 亚历山德拉·L·米尔索姆（生物）

旅游理论领域一直依赖剧院作为交通工具的意象。迪恩·麦克坎内尔（Dean MacCannell）于1973年发表的关于旅游业的原始论文在其标题中隐喻了这一隐喻：“真实性：游客环境中社会空间的安排”（美国社会学杂志79，第3期，[1973]：589–603）。麦克唐纳（MacCannell）的旅游理论基于欧文·高夫曼（Erving Goffman）在《日常生活中的自我呈现》中对我们的“后”和“前”面人物的有影响的著作（1959）帮助他解释游客旅行时正在发生的事情。简而言之：游客经常会被带到当地真实性的“前”阶段表演，例如划船时在威尼斯运河上划船的歌剧，但他们正在寻求“后”阶段的访问来验证他们的体验。如果您注意到旅游文献中普遍存在诸如“隐藏”或“本地”之类的词语，那么您会发现，所谓的“后台”网站显得格外重要。文学学者不时使用旅游理论，但劳拉·恩格尔（Laura Engel）的《妇女，表演与记忆材料：档案游客》，1780–1915年更新了档案工作的理论框架，使用其术语提出了一种考虑自己研究实践的方法。这种理论上的重新构造有助于检验偷窥行为的动态，与档案中的对象进行物理接触的方式以及过去处理实体对象过程中出现的真实性概念。

阐明旅游理论作为有关档案工作的一种手段，并不是恩格尔的高度可读的专着的唯一理论突破。恩格尔借鉴了第一个框架（该框架植根于戈夫曼和麦克坎内尔的社会科学体系）之上，研究了青少年和十九世纪文学学者所研究的表演和名人（比旅游理论更熟悉），来研究一下评论中的实物。每章。恩格尔（Engel）明确指出了这种相互授粉的利害关系，他解释说：“旅游正在庆祝档案馆，档案馆里到处都是游客。虽然有很多方法可以区分两者，但将它们联系起来可以使我们想象自己是过去和现在之间转换中充满活力的体现参与者”（19）。

对于已经熟悉恩格斯的两本关于十八世纪的表演和性别的重要著作的人来说，她在最新一卷中对旅游理论的明确而反复的应用只会使[End Page 273]更加使人赞赏她对重要性和表现的灵巧分析。她解释说，恩格的探究对象“与记忆和有形存在的分期或表现/减少特别相关”（2），按照时间顺序排列。这一系列的章节以对伊丽莎白·英奇巴尔德的口袋日记的探索开始。它与托马斯·劳伦斯（Thomas Lawrence）的莎拉·西登斯（Sarah Siddons）及其女儿萨莉（Sally）和玛丽亚（Maria）的肖像画以及往来书信相伴，然后提供了一个章节，通过她的镜头来考察布莱辛顿伯爵夫人的房地产交易幻灯; 或者，《大都会的景象素描》（1822年）（它本身是对旅游业的重要理论考察）。倒数第二章评估了伊莎贝拉·贝瑟姆（Isabella Beetham）和女儿简·雷德（Jane Read）的剪影以及杜莎夫人蜡像馆的蜡像的重要性。该书以范妮·肯伯（Fanny Kemble）的种植园杂志和阿米莉亚（Amelia）结尾

沃森（M. Watson）随后拍摄的肯布（Kemble）土地照片。恩格尔与构成这一工作中心的物质对象一起工作时，对自己作为物质的分类者和编年史者的作用不自觉。她几乎是作为导游来撰写文章的，跨世纪并通过各种媒体巧妙地带领读者。本书中接受审查的大多数人物都是表演者，艺术家和名人，恩格斯的理论方法引起了人们对自我意识的关注。