The Psychological Mechanism Of Dark Tourism Experience And The Re-Representation Of Dark Tourism Destination

As a type of tourism,dark tourism raises complex problems in tourism management with its unique production form.The production design,the scenic planning,the destination management,and the management of its social impact are facing a lot of challenges.In order to cope with these challenges,the task of the academic community is to explain the nature and the characters of dark tourism,as well as the relation between supply and demand in dark tourism experience.Based on the above understanding,this research applies the theories of Psychology,Sociology and aesthetics,uses the method of field research of Anthropology,applies the software of MAXqda12,practices a examination of dark tourism both on theoretical and empirical side.This research starts from the origin of dark tourism,analyses the precondition,process and consequences of dark tourism experience,interrelates the psychological mechanism of dark tourism experience,and at last,explains the acquirement of accessibility of dark tourism,the pattern of the re-representation of dark tourism destination and the realization of the final dark tourism space.From what has been discussed above,this research tries to explain the dark tourism from both the supply and demand side based on a deep understanding of the nature of dark tourism.Through a profound comprehension of dark tourism,this research tries to achieve two purposes.The first one is providing a systematical theoretical results for tourism study;the second one is to offer a theoretical basis for the development of dark tourism productions in the destination,a theoretical foundation for the government guidance,and an academic reference for the management of the social influence in the development process of dark tourism.On the side of the theories,this research offers explanations to the pleasure issue in dark tourism by analyzing the aesthetic essence and its presence of dark tourism.This research takes the Memorial Hall of the victims in Nanjing Massacre by Japanese invaders in China and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in the U.S.as cases,conducted field researches and collected tourists’reviews on the Internet.These processes lead to a data collection consisted of texts,photos,images,recordings and videos.By applying software of MAXqda12,this research answers the question of dark pleasure,namely the aesthetic essence of dark tourism and its representations.As a start,this research combs the source of the development and psychological base of dark tourism from its historical evolution and human needs.By analyzing the relations between dark tourism and the concepts of pilgrim;ritual and performance,this research points out the ritual nature of dark tourism and its significance as a proper way in which the modern people get touch with death.By explaining the dis-enchantment and re-enchantment procedures of death in modern society,this research points out the enclave character of dark tourism in modern society.Secondly,this research offers an answer to the access of the seeing of tragedies in dark tourism.It proposes three concepts:self-security;distancing and re-representation and divides dimensions under them.Based on the system of these concepts,this research establishes a model.On the topic of self-security,this research points out that the self-security is the fundamental premise of the accessibility in dark tourism.On the topic of distancing,it includes four main dimensions,namely time distance;private distance;aesthetic distance and space distance.Furthermore,this research proposes the four most important time points:0;T1;T2;T3,and the four key time distance periods:0-T1;T1-T2;T2-T3;and beyond T3.Based on these time points and periods,this research analyzes the different characters and their proper design methods of dark tourism destinations with different time distances.On the topic of re-representation,this research discovered that re-representation includes two main mechanisms,namely contextualization/dramatization and heroisation/sanctification.On the side of contextualization/dramatization,the re-representation is achieved by personal stories;scenario reappearances;the presentation of details and the architectural techniques.On the side of heroisation/sanctification,it reflects the sanctity of the spectacle in dark tourism,emphasizes the stories of heroes and contains individual and collective meanings.Taken together,the existence of distances not only relates to the natures of dark tourism destinations,but also relates to the personal characters of the visitors.The re-representation refers to the design and construction of the tragedy events in dark tourism destinations.Thus,this research also proves the re-representation has a threshold and is logically related to the time distances of specific destinations.As the main part,this research analyzes the concept of dark pleasure.Based on the results of empirical analysis,this research proposes a model of dark pleasure.This is a systematical frame which clarifies the aesthetic essence of dark tourism and its representations.From different presepectives,dark pleasure can be divided into negative pleasure and positive pleasure;at-present pleasure and post-experience pleasure;and pleasure from emotional experience and cognitive experience.Based on the dividing of emotion experience and cognitive experience,this research achieved the following conclusions:on the side of emotional experience,there are negative pleasure(originated from the satisfaction of voyeurism,the realization of catharsis,the satisfaction of death instinct and the sadism);aesthetic pleasure(including the experience of experience of drama,sublime experience and the experience of beauty;the experience of collective emotion(including the sense of identity,patriotism,and the sense of honor);moral satisfaction(including the experiences of sympathy and empathy,the expression of respect and the display of moral stance;the experience of human spirit;the experience of heroism and the pleasure coming from the awareness of the improvement of knowledge.On the side of cognitive experience,it includes the cognitive experience stemming from individual and collective experience.In terms of individual experience,pleasure comes from the education function in dark tourism and the acquisition of knowledge;the satisfaction coming from the participation in historical events;the perception of self happiness;the refection of life and death;the perception of self happiness;the pondering of human spirit;the disclosure feelings after the disaster and the fulfillment of personal responsibility.In terms of individual experience,pleasure comes from the realization of the motivation in ancestor worship;the enhancement of patriotism;the fulfillment of collective responsibility;the realization of the commemoration meaning and the experience of collective effervescence.At the end,this research analyzes the dark tourism field from the perspective of dynamic experience.Dark tourism field is not only the basis of the physical construction of dark tourism destination;it is also the atmosphere combining objective environment and the tourists’ subjective psychological experience.This research points out that the dark tourism field is a heterogeneous space which has its own structure.Its heterogeneity is not only reflected in its differences with the daily life,it is also reflected by its differences with the regular tourism fields.However,the dark tourism field has an anti-structure compared to the daily life,it has its our structural nature.This research points out its field elements from the perspective of physical construction which includes:fact elements;architecture elements;art elements;memorial elements;participation elements and functional elements.Furthermore,the application of every kind of elements and the best way of its re-representation have logical relations with the time distance which discussed above.Based on the objective elements,dark tourism field finally shows its nature of rituality.This empirical finding is consistent with the theories analyzed in the first part of this dissertation,namely the source of dark tourism.The significance of it,namely its function as an enclave of death in modern society,and its role as a proper mechanism for modern people to get access to death phenomenon are also pointed out.Based on the empirical research of the Memorial Hall of the victims in Nanjing Massacre and the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in New York,this research proposes a model of dark tourism ritual process,which includes the following phrases:the fact phrase;memorial phrase;salute phrase;condemn phrase;reflection and hope phrase;as well as the self-expression phrase.Based on the analysis of ritual process,this research also identifies the ritual behaviors during the process,including prescriptive behavior;taboo behavior;inducted behavior;and the spontaneous behavior,which leads to a spectrum of the degree of spontaneity in dark tourism behavior.Accordingly,this research also points out the ritual symbols;their symbolic meanings and the ritual performance characters on different levels in dark tourism field.Because of the distinctiveness of dark tourism,it is critical to maintain the legitimacy and integrity of this ritual process,thus,this research particularly points out the elements that may sabotage the rituality of dark tourism.The contents discussed in the above chapters interweave with each other.The implementation of accessibility of dark tourism is the premise of dark tourism visitation and the aesthetic experience in it;its accessibility also determines the different experiences that offered by different dark tourism destinations and the different results of the combinations of specific types of emotional and empirical experiences;the different time distances call for different ways in designing and construction of different dark tourism spectacles,which leads to different tourism experiences;the ritual character of dark tourism is the nature of its role as a proper way for modern people to get access to touch death phenomenon;its ritual character also gives dark tourism the practical reasonableness,offers the moral basis for dark visitors on both individual and social level.This research starts from two directions(visitor and destination),finishes the analysis of the experience process of dark tourism.On the side of visitors,it conducts an exploration of dark tourists’ psychological mechanism.The dark tourism experiences discussed in this research includes not only the types of experiences that have been discussed by former researches,which are mainly positive experiences,but also includes more extensive and deeply hidden experiences.In the past,some of these types of dark tourism experience are neglected by the tourists themselves or un-propagandized by the destinations,or disapproved by the society,but their existence are undeniable.Thus,if the academic requires a profound and authentic understanding of dark tourism phenomena,researchers have to envisage,excavate,analyze and manage these experiences.They not only exist in the far-ranging theories from philosophy,anthropology,sociology,aesthetics and psychology studies,but are also strongly proved by the empirical analysis in this research.On the other side,the research starts from the side of the destination construction.It analyses the re-representation of dark tourism destination,discusses the acquirement of the legitimacy of dark tourism products and the effects of the disasters,nature and time distances on the re-presentation of destinations.At last,this research demonstrates the final products of tourism experience and destination re-presentation from the perspective of rituality of the dark tourism experience and the dark tourism "field".From the above,this research tries to provide a systematical framework of dark tourism experience,on both theoretical and empirical level,from the perspectives of both supply and demand,from the roles of both tourist and destination,and from the sides of both subjective psychological mechanism and objective product design.Bade on this theoretical framework,this research offers a reference for the product development of dark tourism,the destination management,and the optimization of the social influences of dark tourism development.