Literary heritage and place building for communities: the case of Allier, France

Literature’s geography takes an active part in the construction of a social and political space. In a postmodern context of increasing tourist offer and demand, literary tourism is often seen as a niche; an originality factor and a guaranty of authenticity by local development actors and visitors. The present article, consequently, is interested in this dialectic between places and literary heritage. This paper focuses on a participatory action research on citizen associations that promote literary heritage of the County of Allier, France. We look at how local associations build on literary heritage to produce places and representations of those places are aimed at tourist consumption.