TY - JOUR
T1 - Paradoxes of authenticity in liminal consumption
T2 - The case of Casablanca’s Rick’s Café
AU - Mamédio, Diórgenes Falcão
AU - Cunha, Miguel Pina e.
AU - Rego, Arménio
AU - Clegg, Stewart
N1 - Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Miguel Cunha thanks the Funda\u00E7\u00E3o para a Ci\u00EAncia e a Tecnologia (UID/ECO/00124/2019, UIDB/00124/2020 and Social Sciences DataLab, PINFRA/22209/2016), POR Lisboa and POR Norte (Social Sciences DataLab, PINFRA/22209/2016). Arm\u00E9nio Rego also is grateful to Funda\u00E7\u00E3o para a Ci\u00EAncia e a Tecnologia (UIDB/00731/2020; UIDB/00315/2020).
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - What makes a “fake” seemingly “authentic”? The case of Rick’s Café, known worldwide for the movie Casablanca, situates that question. Rick’s was a set constructed on a Hollywood sound stage. Another Rick’s was created materially in Casablanca decades later. Consumers are aware of this liminal condition. It is the reflexivity inherent in this awareness of performative inauthenticity that makes the case both appropriate and nuanced as an opportunity to explore paradoxes of authenticity embodied in a tourist place. The authenticity-fakery relationship is considered theoretically, not as a dualism (either-or), but as a duality (both-and). Empirically, the case is analyzed through an onsite investigation and a virtual ethnography. Four paradoxical dimensions of authenticity (liminal environment, liminal interpretation, liminal affectivity, and liminal recreation) are identified. Tourists, we submit, may experience several authenticities (i.e., objective, constructed, and existential) simultaneously and paradoxically, contributing to a reconceptualization of the tourist experience.
AB - What makes a “fake” seemingly “authentic”? The case of Rick’s Café, known worldwide for the movie Casablanca, situates that question. Rick’s was a set constructed on a Hollywood sound stage. Another Rick’s was created materially in Casablanca decades later. Consumers are aware of this liminal condition. It is the reflexivity inherent in this awareness of performative inauthenticity that makes the case both appropriate and nuanced as an opportunity to explore paradoxes of authenticity embodied in a tourist place. The authenticity-fakery relationship is considered theoretically, not as a dualism (either-or), but as a duality (both-and). Empirically, the case is analyzed through an onsite investigation and a virtual ethnography. Four paradoxical dimensions of authenticity (liminal environment, liminal interpretation, liminal affectivity, and liminal recreation) are identified. Tourists, we submit, may experience several authenticities (i.e., objective, constructed, and existential) simultaneously and paradoxically, contributing to a reconceptualization of the tourist experience.
KW - authentic of marketing
KW - authenticity
KW - fake authentic
KW - liminality
KW - paradox theory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85193747806&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/00472875241249414
DO - 10.1177/00472875241249414
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85193747806
SN - 0047-2875
JO - Journal of Travel Research
JF - Journal of Travel Research
ER -