Paradise Vs Playground: Scholarly Takes On Summer Holiday Archetypes

A caveat: I am writing from the southern hemisphere, and so our summer holidays happen at a different time of year (something so many writers in this global community seem to forget). However: whether you are lucky enough to have some summer where you are, or you're holding out for the bloom of spring in September, this delightful article will warm you up!

JSTOR Daily is a brilliant integration of curated scholarly articles from the JSTOR digital archive and current or topical issues of the day — ranging from science and art to anthropology, medicine, you name it.

In this homage to summer holidays, librarian Victoria Elmwood takes a look at the archetypal summer holiday and explores its various iterations through a scholarly and historical lens. The list is beautifully chosen. There is: the lure of Paradise (beaches and Grecian sandals); the untamed frontier of The Wild (a choice of wilderness, from jungle to cowboy ranch); the intriguing remnants and reminders of history and ancient civilizations in The Ruin, the ethnographical 'Thank You India' of Living Culture; and, the hedonistic no-thenticity of The Playground. 

In each category, the author provides a social or literary or scholarly context and includes links to relevant and extremely interesting scholarly articles, from the attractions of the 'Dude Ranches' of the 1940s to the tensions of visiting contested sacred spaces.