The Literary Heritagescape: Translating Literary Settings into Heritage Sites

This dissertation examines the particular nature of setting-based literary heritage sites. These sites are in a unique position because of their connection to fiction. Three case studies are used to represent a range of setting-based literary heritage sites: Ashdown Forest, The Sherlock Holmes Museum, and Green Gables Heritage Place. The nature of these sites is examined through site observation of tangible and interpreted elements at each site and discussed through three themes: Immersion, Boundaries, and Authenticity. These themes draw from and re-examine current understanding of the heritagescape, and bring forth the challenges of mixing fiction and reality and the difficulties navigating traditional understandings of authenticity at these sites. This research shows how these sites can be analysed as heritage and do not need to be excluded because of their fictional connection. In fact, their unique position among heritage sites allows for new dimensions of the heritagescape to be considered and offers new understandings of how heritage is created and interpreted.I received a Travel Grant from Downing College to help fund the fieldwork for this dissertation