Mass tourism as cultural trauma: An analysis of the Majorcan comics Els darrers dies de l’Imperi Mallorquí (2014) and Un infern a Mallorca (La decadència de l’Imperi Mallorquí) (2018)

Abstract

The Mediterranean island of Majorca has been a popular tourist resort since the late 1950s. While the model of mass tourism has been a subject of various unremitting sociopolitical controversies on the island, the swelling number of visiting tourists in recent years has increased anxieties about the sociocultural and environmental impact of touristification processes. Drawing upon studies of cultural trauma, this article argues that the comics Els darrers dies de l’Imperi Mallorqui (The Last Days of the Majorcan Empire) (2014) and its sequel, Un infern a Mallorca (La decadencia de l’Imperi Mallorqui) (Hell in Majorca [The Decadence of the Majorcan Empire]) (2018), represent the advent of mass tourism on the island as the trigger of a sudden, comprehensive, unexpected and polarizing episode of social change that has profoundly transformed the sociocultural tissue of Majorcan society and the island’s landscape and territory. Both comics depict these socio-environmental crises as cultural crises and therefore suggest the possibility that the experience of cultural trauma has occurred in the island’s recent history. As the article shows, the comic form turns out to be highly qualified to portray the sense of cultural disorientation resulting from the traumatic experience, and to dialogue with the quasi-apocalyptic imagery circulated by emerging grassroots movements against mass tourism on the island. The article further suggests that such a highly critical portrayal of tourism-oriented dynamics should be read vis-a-vis the growing concerns about overtourism in Europe and beyond.