When exhibition becomes landscaping. The "literary park effect" as seen through the example of Gabriele D'Annunzio

Literary parks, whether named as such or not, are currently seeing a certain success, for the past thirty years, as spaces of cultural outreach and literary patrimonialisation. By seeking to combine literary exhibition with multiple open-air experiences, such as tourism, hiking and ecology, these parks illustrate the contemporary tendency to the diversification of practices in a sort of melting pot of "landscaping" in which literature, depending on the context, takes on the role of catalyst, guarantee or excuse. Focusing on the case of Italian literary parks, pioneers in this field, this study seeks to describe the exhibition of literature at work in these spaces in which museological imperatives are no longer paramount. To understand this sort of exhibition, concepts are called upon that are foreign to heritage studies, such as anchoring, transtourism, or eco-centered ethics. Finally, because literary parks remain in any case spaces that communicate a conception (more or less latent) of the heritage they intend to showcase, the image of the writers rendered by their discourse, their scenography and content remain pertinent to the analysis. Thus, through a study of the case of Gabriele D'Annunzio, represented by two literary "parks" in Italy, the Vittoriale and the Parco Letterario Gabriele D'Annunzio, we can pose the more topological question of the park effect in literary exhibition.