Post-holiday memory work: Everyday encounters with fridge magnets

John Byrom, Duncan Light, Dominic Medway, Cathy Parker and Sebastian Zenker

Annals of Tourism Research, 2024, vol. 105, issue C

Abstract: While souvenirs have generated considerable interest within tourism research, less attention has been paid to their post-holiday ‘afterlife’. Utilising perspectives from memory research and more-than-representational theory, this paper focuses on interactions with a ubiquitous souvenir: the fridge magnet. Drawing on semi-structured interviews we illustrate how, because of their embeddedness within everyday domestic rhythms, magnets are active agents in the stimulation of post-holiday memory work. We show how magnets work to generate and protect memories, triggering a diversity of (usually positive) emotional and affective responses. They can also be associated with ambivalent memories; with their role sometimes being more about forgetting. Although being seemingly banal objects, fridge magnets have a complex capacity to affect everyday life long after a holiday ends.

Keywords: Fridge magnets; Souvenirs; Memory work; Forgetting; Place; Tourist experience (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:anture:v:105:y:2024:i:c:s016073832400001x

DOI: 10.1016/j.annals.2024.103724

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