“Literary Tourism in Canada” is the first extended exploration of the practice and significance of literary tourism in Canada, and the first theorization of literary commemoration sites using humanities-based modes of inquiry to conceptualize literary tourism as a public reading practice. The project examines the 9 National Historic Sites in Canada associated with literary authors, as well as Project Bookmark - a national literary trail with 29 sites across the country.

This project will bring humanities expertise to explore the sites and texts of literary tourism in Canada, combining site visits and interviews with theory-rich close readings to interrogate the interpretative function of this public reading practice. What happens, this project asks, when the lives, writings, and imagined worlds of Canadian authors are physically commemorated for a reading public? What are the factors that determine why and how specific works or authors are commemorated? Who visits these sites, and what readings of Canadian literature—and of Canadian landscapes—are encouraged through their programming and presentation?