Travels to the "Holy Land": Perceptions, Representations and Narratives

This monographic issue, composed of ten essays, investigates the relationship between travel and the Holy Land from the 19th century to the beginning of the 21th century. In particular, it deals with perceptions, representations and narrations provided both by travelers to the Holy Land and by subjects (individuals, as well as groups, organizations and institutions) who envisioned it without ever having traveled there. In this way, this issue intends to identify reciprocal and intertwined influences between narratives of the imagined Holy Land and travelers’ accounts, thus exploring to what extent the construction of the Holy Land has been carried out according to a combination of travelers’ reports and imagined narratives. More specifically, this monographic issue simultaneously presents the way in which different travelers, coming from various geographic, religious, cultural, socio-economic and political backgrounds perceived the Holy Land, depicting, narrating and constructing it, i

This monographic issue, composed of ten essays, investigates the relationship between travel and the Holy Land from the 19th century to the beginning of the 21th century. In particular, it deals with perceptions, representations and narrations provided both by travelers to the Holy Land and by subjects (individuals, as well as groups, organizations and institutions) who envisioned it without ever having traveled there. In this way, this issue intends to identify reciprocal and intertwined influences between narratives of the imagined Holy Land and travelers’ accounts, thus exploring to what extent the construction of the Holy Land has been carried out according to a combination of travelers’ reports and imagined narratives. More specifically, this monographic issue simultaneously presents the way in which different travelers, coming from various geographic, religious, cultural, socio-economic and political backgrounds perceived the Holy Land, depicting, narrating and constructing it, irrespective of their reasons for traveling, whether based on religion (i.e. Jewish, Christian and Muslim pilgrims) profession, or tourism. Thus, it collects diverse viewpoints in order to shed light on the similarities and differences, continuities and fragmentations concerning the Holy Land that may have occurred during the last three centuries.