NO HUMBLE ABODE: EDITH WHARTON’S THE MOUNT AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF HERITAGE
NO HUMBLE ABODE: EDITH WHARTON’S THE MOUNT AND THE COMMODIFICATION OF HERITAGE

Summary/Abstract: Built around Edith Wharton’s “autobiographical house” and her legacy at The Mount estate in Lenox, Massachusetts, my paper addresses issues such as the heritagization of the past and the commodification of heritage as made obvious by the transformation of the American writer’s residence at the beginning of the 20th century – now a U. S. National Historic Landmark – into a venue for social and academic events all around the year: balls, weddings, parties, conferences, and exhibitions exploring themes from Wharton’s life and work. I will argue that Wharton’s New England residence, which is at once a site of individual and collective memory and which evinces the American cult of the country house as symbolizing the very idea of heritage, similarly reflects a nostalgia for the past before modernization and a commodification of that nostalgia, encouraging and supporting the development of the so-called “memory tourism”. In addition, I will analyze the role of contemporary media in providing new interpretations and representations of this particular site and their attempt at reconstructing and commercializing the spirit of the bygone age.

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