Framing the sublime as affect in post-disaster tourism

This article frames dark tourism experiences employing the geographical concept of sublime-as-affect. We contend that the sublime has features that allow us to analyse it as an affect, an intensity of feeling that circulates in-between bodies, which can be experienced poignantly in places of death, and lead to transformative experiences. By presenting accounts of tourism-related stakeholders in post-disaster Tohoku, Japan, devastated by an earthquake, a tsunami, and a nuclear meltdown, we overview moments in which the sublime-as-affect is experienced. Findings suggest that while the dilapidated and abandoned landscapes of Tohoku evoke a negative representation, they also demonstrate a potential for generating transformative affects, which can become a vehicle for meaning in post-disaster tourism encounters.